Dora makes a living by writing letters for illiterate people at Rio de Janeiro's main train station, Central Station. At home, she re-reads the letters along with her friend Irene, and, together, they decide which ones deserve to actually be sent. When one of her clients is hit by a car, her nine-year-old son Josue remains alone at the station, lost. Unwillingly, Dora takes the boy in and ends up going with him to Brazil's remote Northeast, in search of his father. The two, so different, get closer as they travel across the country.