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Bruce Parry joins the Matis, an Amazonian tribe wrongly nicknamed the jaguar people, in the 1980s nearly extinguished by exposure to Western germs, still quite a problem, and much of the shamans' herbal medicine was lost with them. Even bringing the imposed gift stipulated by Brazil's Indian agency PENA, the chief would refuse filming, till he is convinced the BBC is not here to exploit them as a primitive spectacle like earlier crews (even asked to pretend they still went naked) but to show their real life and transition with many modern introductions, such as soccer. Bruce shares his host Tumi's home with various vermin and partakes in social life, which happens largely in the long-house, including meals and rituals such as dripping a gruesome root-juice in their eyes and his as preparation for an exhausting hunt, notably for peccary after a dance imitating that boar's sounds and capture, covered in mud which is washed off. Blowpipes even shoot monkeys from high trees, some babies are adopted as pets. Evening entertainment includes story-telling and nature-imitating dances, salsa learned by young men in town -they prefer their own lifestyle still- has its village premiere in Bruce's presence. Fresh-cut switches, flexible enough to whip around the belly, are used on the bare back to give hunters courage, and by foliage-dressed 'forest spirits' on pregnant women and otherwise never chastised children to stimulate growth and cure laziness. Frog poison is administered trough small wounds as a vomiting-inducing ritual hunter's ordeal. Domestic fun includes body painting, which has lost any symbolical meaning. After his greatest hunt and the meal, Bruce gets a warm send-off.

Bruce visits by river Itui the Valle de Javari, a relatively pristine Brazilian nature and tribal reserve. It's home to various tribes, including the Matis, where Bruce spend a month for his Tribe series, so they welcome him as an old friend and implore help as even more terrible diseases such as STD hepatitis B spread, beyond shaman therapy. Next Bruce meets the Marubo, the reserve's largest tribe, made up a century ago by remnants of deep forest tries fleeing rubber slavery. He partakes in the macho excruciating trucadeiro ant bites ritual and ritual drum logging. Finally he joins a band of non-industrial loggers, who try to harvest hardwood selectively, claiming the track grows back even more diverse.