This was writer Lauro César Muniz's first prime-time telenovela, inspired by the professional trajectory of his own father, a Portuguese immigrant who built his life in Brazil working with cotton.
The topic of divorce, raised through the marital crisis between Antônio (Tarcísio Meira) and Cândida (Susana Vieira), was so in-depth in the telenovela that it launched a broader debate about the absence of laws that specifically regulated the separation of couples. The 'Divorce Law' was passed in Brazil two years later, on 28 June 1977, and it allowed the termination of a couple's ties and permitted people to remarry. Until then, the marital status term was 'separated' but the marriage bond did not end.
Each distinct period of the plot practically required the production of a new telenovela, with different sets and characters and the casting of various actors. The actors who remained throughout the story went through an aging process of makeup and costumes until the final episode, in which specialist Victor Merinow was hired to apply the oldest stage of the aging visuals.