Alves Reis is a self-made outsider with a genius for turning a closed door into an opportunity. Shut out and underestimated, he’s is determined to give his wife Maria and their family the life they deserve and, hustle by hustle, he begins to invent his way upwards. From forged credentials to official contracts, his journey takes him via colonial backwaters all the way to the boardrooms of the Bank of Portugal — until his greatest bluff becomes one of the greatest cons in history.