Consumed by an insatiable desire, Sergio lives in a world that suits him to perfection. He spends his days between a rented room in a cheap bed-and-breakfast, anonymous sex with men, and his job as a rubbish collector in the north of Lisbon. He has long been trapped inside a childhood state, shared only with Lorde, the rubbish depot guard dog, and he is unaware of the shadows trying to encircle him: the love of Fatima, a workmate; the strange vigilance of a policeman; the foreman's ambiguous desire. But one night he sees the phantom of his dreams, and he awakens in the obsession of love. Entranced, he spies the man, rummages through his rubbish, breaks into his house. Rejected, he seeks refuge in chaos, in the world's unwanted scraps. He is alone. He no longer belongs to this world.