Rio de Janeiro races to remake itself ahead of the World Cup and the Olympics, and the film follows what that remaking costs the residents of the city's favelas. Bulldozers move through hillside communities as officials frame the demolitions as urban renewal and crime control, while families who have lived in these neighborhoods for generations describe eviction notices, forced relocations, and homes cleared with little warning. Interviews with displaced residents sit alongside footage of construction sites rising where houses once stood, and officials defend the pace of change as necessary for the city's international image. The film traces the tension between Rio's global branding push and the people being pushed out of the picture, asking who the 'new' Rio is actually being built for. It stays close to the ground, in the streets and stairways of the favelas themselves, rather than the stadiums, making clear that the cost of hosting the world's biggest sporting events lands hardest on those with the least power to resist it.