The characteristic loves of Margarida and Clara, the distinct moral of Pedro and Daniel, the goodness of João Semana, and the dissidents, sensibility, tenderness, rituals and landscape involvement of the Minho.
Popular in the riverside area of Porto, Micas raised her daughter, Madalena, at the cost of sacrifice, as her father emigrated to Brazil. With a happy voice, Madalena works on unloading the coal, seeing her loves thwarted by her humble condition. Barata, another typical figure who makes a living from expedients, helps Madalena's father - meanwhile returned, to "register" her - in a kidnapping plan capable of facilitating her reconciliation with Micas, who is reluctant... Things get complicated, but happiness ends up triumphing.
For Capt. Robert John Evans, smuggling black-market goods is nothing out of the ordinary. But one day he's hired by Aristides Mavros for a more involved assignment -- sneaking an imprisoned American out of communist-controlled territory. The job seems challenging enough, but when he meets the prisoner's sultry wife, Sylvia, he realizes his mission comes with a startling catch: Not only must he rescue this man, he must bring him back from the dead.
During the third Carlist war on Basque soil, Zalacaín, no frowns that his great enemy of the people pretend to love his sister, but he lives the reverse situation, in love with his sister.
The great fadista, Amelia Rodrigues, made her screen debut in Capas Negras, which took its name from the black capes worn by the students in the university city of Coimbra, where the film is set. The action begins in a tavern where a group of former students are reminiscing about their time at the university. One of the students, Jose Duarte then breaks into song, performing an impromptu fado in the local Coimbra style. The tavern owner's niece, the aptly named Maria Lisboa promptly retaliates with a fado of the Lisbon variety. The melodramatic plot then centers on the frustrated romance between these two characters, and the soundtrack is essentially a musical duel between these two different styles of Portugal's national song.