Maos Sangrentas translates to Bloody Hands in English, and that's just what this gruesome Brazilian melodrama delivers. The story begins when a gang of dangerous convicts escape from a penal colony. With the police in hot pursuit, the escapees cut a gory swath through the countryside. As his comrades are killed off one by one, the leader of the group descends into gibbering madness. In contrast to this, a subplot develops involving the least dangerous of the escapees, who murdered his wife in a peak of self-righteous rage and is now seriously in doubt about the wisdom of his deed. Principal scenes reworked in 1962 to make the film The Violent and the Damned (q.v.).

When chain gang prisoners attack their guards, some of the hardened criminals escape Brazil's infamous Anchieta Prison amidst all the pick-ax carnage. The government dispatches a machine-gun squad to round up the fugitives, who have fled by foot and boat and now have begun to turn on each other.

César wants to be a singer and, with the help of his friends Maloca and Didi, seeks an opportunity on television talent shows. When he performs on Chacrinha's show, he wins all the night's prizes and wins the affection of a young woman from a wealthy family who is dating a con man who steals cars. Realizing the girl has a crush on the singer, the con man sets a trap to get César out of the game.

In the Rio de Janeiro Central Station, the infamous pickpocket Mão Leve meets Honorina—a Northeastern girl looking for a job—with whom he falls in love. Willing to conquer her, the thief decides to abandon his life of crime, but soon finds out it won't be easy.