During their exploration of central Brazil in 1943, Orlando, Claudio and Leonardo Villas-Bôas encounter the Xingu Indians. Passionately interested by what they discover about the customs and social systems of the cultures they discover, the brothers make a home among them. When half of a village dies of an influenza epidemic, the brothers devote their lives to protecting the Xingu peoples, preserving Xingu culture and to the creation of a Xingu National Park.
By retelling the brothers saga, Xingu reveals the struggle to create the Indian park and consequent preservation of an array of different Indian tribes, transforming the Villas-Boas into Brazilian heroes and giving rise to dialogues revolving around chronic problems in Brazils history.