The telenovela is divided into two phases, the first set in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais in 1934 and the second in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro in 1944. It follows the wealthy sisters Elisa and Isadora who, each in a different phase, fall in love with the magician Davi. The sisters are both played by Larissa Manoela.
InPoços de Caldas in 1934, Elisa, the naïve daughter of the wealthy couple Matias and Violeta, falls in love with Davi, a young magician. Matias does not approve of their relationship, and Elisa ends up dying when her father tries to kill Davi but the bullet hits her instead. Davi is framed for this crime and sentenced to a 20-year prison term.
In 1944, ten years afterwards, the family lives in Campos dos Goytacazes. Matias has become psychologically unstable and cannot remember the past, while Violeta co-owns the weaving factory Tecelagem Tropical with the widowed Eugênio, with whom she starts to live a forbidden romance envied by the ambitious Úrsula, who has always been rejected by Eugênio and is capable of anything to get rid of Violeta. Matias and Violeta's younger daughter Isadora, who is now eighteen and physically similar to Elisa, dates Úrsula's arrogant son Joaquim, who is manipulated by his mother into marrying Isadora in order to inherit the family's fortune.
Meanwhile, Davi manages to escape prison and boards the luggage wagon of a train. After the train derails and crashes, he manages to steal the documents of Rafael, an almost fatal victim of the accident who gets into a coma. He then goes to the family's farm in Campos dos Goytacazes, where he begins to impersonate Rafael in order to conceal his real identity and eventually prove his innocence. The only person in the house who knows the truth about Davi is the maid Augusta, who believes in his innocence and often helps and advises him.
Davi's plans are hindered when he and Isadora fall in love with each other, leaving him to confront not only Joaquim, Úrsula and Matias, but also the dilemma of telling Isadora who he really is or not.
Besides the main storyline, Além da Ilusão also shows secondary situations involving other characters, such as other members of the family and factory workers living in the village around the house.
Alessandra Poggi began developing the telenovela in 2018.[12][13] The telenovela had the working titles O Reverso da Fortuna (The Reverse of Fortune) and O Preço da Ilusão (The Price of Illusion), and in late 2019 it was confirmed as an upcoming production for the 6pm timeslot.[14] Filming began in September 2021 in Poços de Caldas, Minas Gerais.[15][16] In November 2021, interior filming began at Estúdios Globo.[17]
