After an elderly crime boss retires from business, his three lieutenants each inherit a piece of his empire: Max is given the kidnapping ring, while the prostitution racket and the drug trafficking go to the others. Max is not satisfied with his share, and after killing the old boss he gets rid of the other two lieutenants. However, a police officer finds a lighter at the murder scene which could lead to Max, who then kidnaps the policeman's daughter.

In early seventies Italy, plagued by criminality and political terrorism, a fearless police commissioner is sent to restore law and order in a northern industrial town devastated by a recent wave of violence and kidnappings..