The feature debut of João Pedro Rodrigues, O FANTASMA reveals a preoccupation with transformations and new identities that would inform his subsequent work from ODETE and TO DIE LIKE A MAN to Rodrigues' most recent THE ORNITHOLOGIST, with fleeting hardcore imagery deployed for verisimilitude rather than mere titillation (although this content certainly lead to its international notoriety). Sérgio (Ricardo Meneses) works the night shift as a Lisbon garbage collector. Although young and handsome, he has trouble connecting with men and women alike, having his most healthy relationship with his pet dog and seemingly only wanting similar closeness of a pet and master with attracted co-worker Fátima (Beatriz Torcato). After discovering a cop (Jorge Almeida) bound and gagged in his own car after an anonymous sexual encounter, and engaging in a not-entirely-non-consensual act with him, Sérgio embarks on a series of increasingly risky encounters, adapting a more emboldened personality from objects found on his route: from a torn pair of speedos, taking on a biker person after purchasing a motorcycle from João (Andre Barbosa) whom he proceeds to stalk, and eventually becoming (or revealing himself to be) the titular "phantom" prowling the dark streets in a rubber bondage suit seen in an opening encounter (which may or may not be Sérgio) after irrevocably severing what few "normal" relationships he once had.