Originally published in Portuguese in 1943 as Terras do sem fim by Livraria Martins Editoria, Brazil. In this short novel, the aristocratic Badaros family is pitted against the middle-class planter Colonel Horacio Silveira in a struggle to obtain a crucial piece of land for the growing of cacao. Amado's true subject—and one he frequently comes back to—is the effect of the Bahia region's vast cacao plantations on the local citizens and the communities in which they live.