Zeze is six years old, and is a clever boy, yet gets himself in to much trouble with things he only meant as innocent jokes. Living in a poor family with unemployed and often grumpy father, a mother who works long hours at a factory, and two brothers and two sisters, Zeze does not get much toys to play with, even at Christmas, but has an old fruitless tree in his backyard called Minguinho whom he likes to "talk'to and "play?with. One day, Zeze meets a Portugal man, and soon after they become very close friendsclose enough to make Zeze want "his Portuga'to adopt him as a legal son. Portuga shows Zeze kind and warmth which Zeze's own father fails to show him, yet because of a tragic train accident, Portuga dies and Zeze is forced to bid farewell to his best friend Portuga, Minguinho who represents Zeze's childhood innocence, and everything else that had previously made Zeze a pure and neive kidZeze has matures.
Profile of Zeze: Zeze is the main character, a six year old boy, who is a trouble maker whom often gets a beating out of things he meant only as a joke. Zeze is really a nice person, however, he is too neive to know why people are irritated by his immaturity. In his childish innocence, Zeze can make anything happen in his imaginary world: a useless tree in to a friend, chickens in to fearsome black panthers, and buttons on some threads into cable cars. Zeze is clever too: he likes to increase his vocabulary with confusing words, and he can already read, so in result he was sent to school a year earlier than usual.
