Synopsis
It is the epic of the steel industry in Brazil, reported here through this story of love between a Brazilian woman, native of Minas Gerais, and the Luxembourgish pioneer of the steel industry in Brazil, illegitimate son an aristocrat and his servant. The First World War is the initial backdrop of this saga. The father of the protagonist, Jacques Esch, dies on a battlefield in France. Freshly graduated from the University of Aachen, the young man arrives in Brazil in 1925. He is 30 years old. Attracted by the huge iron ore reserves in Minas Gerais, the Belgian-Luxembourg group Arbed invests in Brazil. In the 30s, the global crisis forces Arbed to request closure of the Sabará, plant,former headquarters of Companhia Siderúrgica Mineira. Passionate of Brazil, Jacques does not comply and manages to obtain funds from Brazilian banks to keep the company afloat. He dedicates all his dreams and all his energy to a new project, the modern plant of Monlevade. It will become the first integrated steel plant in Latin America, a real university of metallurgists. At fifty, he falls in love with a woman of troubled past, defying social conventions and morals of his time. Jacques and Leontina live happiness and enjoy glory with the success and expansion of their projects. Their ambitions stir jealousy of those who want bridle their ambitions. The outcome of their story is tragic, but the love between these two beings, so dissimilar, is a vibrant tribute to the power of dreams.