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A legend in her own time, singer Carmen Miranda was only 30 when she began firing up her Brazilian compatriots while holding America under her spell. But who was she really? With her tropical-fruit-decorated hats, her sequined costumes and her dazzling smile, this Portuguese-born and Rio-raised singer and dancer embodied the flamboyant style, sensuality and temperament of forties Latin America. In 1945, with some dozen Hollywood musicals to her credit, she was the highest paid female entertainer in the United States. Solberg’s film retraces the destiny of a woman forced to live out the myth of „The Brazilian Bombshell“. The gradual revelation of the woman behind the perfect star mask are arranged like the plot of a thriller, playing off both documentary authenticity and fiction feature style. Using movie clips and archive footage, interviews with friends and relatives and reconstituted film sequences, Solberg pieces together the portrait of a woman who paid deadly for her fame and fortune.