The "water roads" are at times the only practicable roads across the Amazonian forest. Even for the local inhabitants, life along the river means keeping it navigable and protecting it from the environmental damage caused by deforestation. Augusto Contento brings a light, lyrical touch to a world fast disappearing, never straying from the river itself, in an unusual road movie that rides Brazil's majestic watery highways and gives voice to a profusion of enough scholars, river dwellers, and travelers to do a magical South American novel proud.