Longing for a son who delays to arrive, King John V is warned by Friar Antonio de S. Joseph: "Your Majesty,   build a Franciscan convent in Mafra and God will give you   an offspring. " The royal desire would unleash an epic of men: herculean efforts of thousands of workers recruited across the country, as well as those of architects and engineers. Expensive materials brought from abroad and paid for with the gold from Brazil, thus depleting it.

 

United by a natural love, Baltasar and Blimunda join Padre Bartolomeu Lourenço and his dream of flying. The Passarola, flying machine: a mixture between a boat and a bird, is created from the scientific knowledge of Bartholomew, the workforce of Baltasar and the powers of Blimunda. Collecting human wills (the "closed clouds") that will feed the machine flight.

 

Above the works of the Mafra Convent will have passed the Holy Spirit, said by the priests and by what the people believe. At that time, flying, not God's work, could only be one of the devil, and thus heralds the tragic end of the three wonderful characters.