Rome, 1960s. Three young criminals, Lebanese, Ice and Dandy, with the help of a makeshift gang of other crooks, including Black, an extremist who thinks he’s the last samurai, kidnap and brutally kill a rich landowner. They decide to invest their ransom money in the heroin business. It’s the birth of a smart and ruthless organization which crushes all rivals, assumes total control of the drug trade, imposes brutal criminal laws on Rome, allies itself with the Mafia and at the same time benefits from the protection of those faceless men the government assigns their dirty work to. Meanwhile, the authorities are absorbed in a fight against national terrorism and underestimate the flood of dirty
money and violence preying upon Rome. Only Captain Scialoja senses the devastating power of these new gangsters. In order to destroy them, Scialoja unscrupulously gets involved in a dangerous relationship with Patrizia, an intriguing prostitute, who also happens to be Dandy’s girl. It’s a relationship in which both of them get in way over their heads and initial intentions. Meanwhile, after the organization hits the apex of its success, things inexorably head towards disaster: more and more often, Lebanese manifests his overblown sense of greatness in maniacal ways; disgusted by relationships with Mafia and politicians, Ice thinks about retiring with Roberta, a “clean” girl he is madly in love with; Dandy starts to deal on his own. The crew unites again to revenge the death of Lebanese, who was stabbed for a gambling debt that he proudly refused to honor. But the reunion is short lived: framed by an informer, Ice, Dandy and all the others are arrested. Ice manages to escape, while Dandy is acquitted thanks to his influential friends.
The gang is now divided: a period of mutual revenges and a succession of murders begins.