It surprises no one that the charming but wayward Vadinho dos Guimaraes—a gambler notorious for never winning—dies during Carnival. His long-suffering widow Dona Flor devotes herself to her cooking school and her friends, who urge her to remarry.

She is soon drawn to a kind pharmacist who is everything Vadinho was not, and is altogether happy to marry him. But after her wedding, she finds herself dreaming about her first husband’s amorous attentions; and one evening, Vadinho himself appears by her bed, as lusty as ever, to claim his marital rights.