Follows a criminal gang in Rome that has a near monopoly of the city's heroin trade. Besides their internal feuding, the gang has to deal with the Camorra and Sicilian Mafia that both supply its heroin, the police led by Commissioner Scialoja and the Italian secret services.

Sofia, a budding young theater actress, unwittingly discovers that Bruno, her beloved acting teacher, is gay. Heartbroken and determined to flee as far away from him as possible, she meets a young girl on the train who gives birth and abandons the baby. Sofia makes a life-changing decision: she takes the child and passes him off as her own son, naming him Bruno.