Peter Mandrake, a North-American photojournalist becomes embroiled in South America's dangerous underworld of pimps, drug gangs and arms smugglers when he sets out to find the killer of a local call girl.

Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, during the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas. Outlaw Tonio is involved in a conflict between strikers and the police. His mistress tries to keep him from his companions, but he steals her belongings to help the persecuted. Dissatisfied, she denounces him, compromising him politically.