the two men who become respectively an upper-middle class politician and a drug lord from rio's slums find themselves reconnecting in ilha grande maximum security prison in the 1970s during the military dictatorship when miguel is incarcerated as a political prisoner and guerrilla activist, and his friend jorge imprisoned for robbery.

the film which jumps mainly between the 70s and the present day tracks in parallel the men's complex friendship and the social and cultural transformation of rio de janeiro through the eyes of both the middle class and the socially excluded.

a remarkable study of recent brazilian history the film highlights the huge inequalities between rich and poor, white and black as each man represents the group to which he belongs, miguel heavily involved in an activist collective within the prison which rejects drugs and looks for better social conditions and jorge, who becomes part of a group which ultimately leads to the formation of the comando vermelho (red command), the most powerful drug trafficking organization in rio de janeiro.