The novel deals with the foundation of a community (the Tocaia Grande of the title, meaning 'great ambuscade' in Portuguese), in a fertile area surrounded by large cocoa fazendas owned by 'coronel' Boaventura. The ambush was held in the same place by Natario de Fonseca, a jagunco at the service of Boaventura, against the latter's enemies; in reward, Natario is given a small cocoa plantation near the hamlet, and subsequently helps the variegate Tocaia Grande community to grow, until it reaches the status of a town.

The other main characters of the novel are a Lebanese immigrant, Fadul, who owns the main store of Tocaia Grande and is celebrated for his will and physical strength; Castor de Abduim, a beautiful black hammersmith, whose companion, Diva, is killed by cholera; Bernarda, a young prostitute who becomes Natario's lover; and a group farmers from Sergipe, whose arrive starts a colourful mixing between their traditions with the Bahian ones of the first Tocaia Grande's inhabitants

Jorge Amado de Faria was a Brazilian writer of the Modernist school. He was the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, his work having been translated into some 30 languages and popularized in film.