In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

After a bloody invasion of the BOPE in the High-Security Penitentiary Bangu 1 in Rio de Janeiro to control a rebellion of interns, the Lieutenant-Colonel Roberto Nascimento and the second in command Captain André Matias are accused by the Human Right Aids member Diogo Fraga of execution of prisoners. Matias is transferred to the corrupted Military Police and Nascimento is exonerated from the BOPE by the Governor.

In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.

Marcelo leaves his family and moves to Mato Grosso do Sul, where he learns how to fly airplanes by himself watching the pilots. One day, he responds the call of a drug dealer and uses his boss' plane to help the man to transport his cargo. He is hired by the drug lord to work transporting drugs in his airplanes. When he is arrested by the Federal Police, he does not rat his gang and the leader of the cartel gives a large amount of money as a bonus and asks him to leave the gang since he is known by the police. Marcelo uses the money to promote a party in the Carnival of Recife pretending to be the son of the owner of the Gol (a Brazilian air flight company). He lures the high-society, including the television presenter Amaury Jr. Marcelo is arrested again and is sent to prison. During a rebellion, he uses his leadership to present the claims of the prisoners and help to control the situation.

A boy is left alone in a Jewish neighborhood in the year of 1970, where both world cup and dictatorship happen in Brazil.