11 Minutes Sparknotes

Eleven Minutes is the story of a young girl named Maria who leaves her Brazilian home to go to Geneva, Switzerland, in hopes of great adventure and great love. Her situation does not prove to be what she had hoped and she pursues a career in prostitution in order to make money quickly in order to return home. During her time in Switzerland, Maria experiences pain, pleasure, and love and must decide the correct path for her life.

Maria grows up in a small town in the interior of Brazil where folklore, superstitions, and traditional roles for women are woven into the culture. Although she is good at school and always tries to better her situation by reading books, Maria's only goal is to fall in love, marry, and raise a family. Maria has several experiences with young love but her true love never appears, leaving Maria to believe that she is destined to live without that most
Maria goes to Rio de Janeiro, where she is approached by a Swiss entertainment businessman and is coaxed to fly back to Switzerland with the man and work in his nightclub as a samba dancer. Immediately upon her arrival, Maria learns the truth about the arrangement and will receive much less money that she had hoped, forcing her into a lifestyle much more restricted than the one she had imagined.

When the man discovers that Maria has dated a man she had met at the club, she is fired. Fortunately, the man helps Maria get a generous severance package and Maria is able to live for awhile while she looks for more work. Maria signs up at a modeling agency and meets a client to discuss a fashion show, but Maria ends up sleeping with the man for money. This is the beginning of Maria's career as a prostitute, something she does because it is good money for relatively little