On her birthday, Joana's joy turns to despair when her abusive husband discovers her pregnancy and attempts to harm her. Fleeing the city, she finds refuge on a boat with criminals, but realizing the danger, she sees land beyond so leaps into the water and swims to Terceira Island, leaving her life behind. Exhausted on the shore, she encounters Chico, a lost child, during a religious ceremony. Joana arrives with the child, inadvertently becoming mistaken for a saint 'Our Lady of the Sea', revered by the island's faithful.