Giulì is a traveling puppeteer who meets Viola, a young ferrywoman who transports passengers on a raft. Giulì's desire is to have a child, so he builds one out of wood. One morning, in place of the puppet , he finds a child of flesh and blood.

Gino Quirino aka Manolesta, a thief and a con man, lives on a barge anchored on the Tiber with Bruno, his young son. Gino ends up in the crosshairs of the social worker Dr. Angela De Maria, and he is forced to find an honest job.

Rome, Italy, early 1980s. A guy who worked at the Blue Gay, a transvestite cabaret, is found murdered, strangled. Marshal Nico Giraldi is responsible for investigating, infiltrating the Roman Gay community.

While keeping an eye on his small time crook brother in law, Inspector Nico Giraldi gets involved in a murder case set in the world of Formula One racing. Giraldi is suspended for trying to cover up for his brother in law and becomes afraid his wife and son may be targeted next. Therefore he calls in the help of his childhood friend and chief informant, Venticello.

Now an agent of Interpol undercover, the former Inspector Giraldi, goes to New York to find his friend Salvatore Esposito, aspiring restaurateur in Little Italy, suffocated by debts with the usurers headed by Don Gerolamo. He will remove the gang and assure her of justice, but she will suffer the advances of the Boss's daughter, the ugly Maria Sole.

Undercover cop Nico Giraldi is once again transformed, now as a trucker in a criminal gang.