The Sabino Machado family, their slaves and entourage spend years frozen in the ocean after a shipwreck in 1886. They wake up gradually, one by one, and must learn to deal with the technology and the human idiosyncrasies of the present times. Among cultural and temporal shocks, "the frozen ones" encounter improbable friendships, romances and greedy people, while fighting prejudices that not even time was able to eradicate.