In Rome in the thirties lives Nito Valdi, a difficult boy just out of the reformatory, who works for a local boss together with his friend Tony. The meeting with the beautiful Carmen will take Nito's life to an unexpected turn: after the loss of his greatest friend, with the arrival of fascism Valdi approaches the Blackshirts, while he becomes Carmen's worst nightmare. Nito is obsessed with her and wants her at any cost. But Carmen is expecting a child with Giancarlo, scion of one of the most prominent families in Rome: the Fontamaras. The story of Carmen and Nito, who turns out to be a Nazi psychopath, is intertwined with that of the Fontamaras, who have just discovered that they have Jewish origins and therefore must leave Italy to avoid falling victim to those like Valdi.