Milan, Italy, 1967. Santo Russo, a boy of Calabrian origin, arrives north with his parents and younger brother to find better living conditions. Due to an absurd misunderstanding and his father's contempt, Santo ends up in prison, where he gets a “true education.” In 1978, he and his friends Slim and Mario embark on a 15-year criminal career, a successful and ruthless spiral of robberies, kidnappings, murders and heroin smuggling.
In a sparse and inhospitable land, the policeman Enzo Vitello, a man with a dark past, is obsessed with "Dostoyevsky", a serial killer whom he kills with a peculiarity: next to the body, the murderer always leaves a letter with his desolate and very clear vision of the world, of life and darkness that Vitello hears resonating in him.
