Rio de Janeiro, 1999. When a young middle-class guy gives in to drug addiction, his father, a policeman, goes to his rescue in the slums. Victor is a father whose mission in life is to win the war on drugs. Meanwhile, his son Pedro keeps losing his battles against them. Being on opposite sides of the same war will cause their relationship to crumble.

Facing threats and unable to fight against his addiction, Pedro meets Jasmin and joins a gang of luxury home burglars. Victor seeks out an informant in an attempt to find his son's whereabouts. In 1970, a young Victor takes part in his very first big drug bust.

After a failed attempt to reconcile with his father, and upset by the mistakes of the previous robbery, Pedro considers quitting, only to come up with a plan for an even bigger burglary. In 1970, Victor infiltrates the slum and meets the drug lord who wants to make cocaine popular in Rio de Janeiro.

Pedro becomes annoyed at Lico’s constant blunders during their robberies. In 1995, at age 14, Pedro and Lico started doing cocaine. They carried out their first burglaries to support their addiction. In the 1970s, young Victor is pressured into snorting coke for the first time. He questions his own actions as an undercover agent and considers walking away from the mission.

At the age of 15, Pedro undergoes a brutal period of rehab treatments. As an adult, devastated by a terrible loss, he succumbs completely to his drug addiction. His friends worry that he might OD. In 1970, young Victor takes a risk and makes one more delivery for the drug lord, Ribeiro.

Clean and serene after months of rehab, Pedro is lured right back into drugs and crime. The police are on his tail. In 1978, Victor joins the Civil Police and, during an operation in the favela, he runs into an old acquaintance. Disillusioned, he joins a unit that promises to rid Rio de Janeiro of drugs.

After an unsuccessful heist and the death of a gang member, Pedro ends up being kidnapped, putting his mother and sister in a risky situation. They come up with a plan to rescue him while Victor, after finding out about his son’s abduction, swears revenge on the perpetrators.