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.

In Brazil, a diamond prospector sets out in pursuit of a thief who has robbed him and left him for dead. Along the way, he meets one of his adversary's former mistresses and tries to extract some information from her.