After a heated quarrel with his colleagues at the headquarters of the State Police in Rome, Angelo Caronia is transferred to temporary duty running a small police station in the suburb of Palermo. The downgrade is hard to accept for the intellectual investigator, particularly since the area is his hometown where he is still estranged from his father and his half-brother, who have links to the Mafia. His new team turns out to be a group of demotivated officers who are openly hostile to perfectionism and to the meticulous methods of their new superior, although pretty Daniela Gemma immediately catches his attention. His first task is managing a demonstration against the lack of water, but it soon leads to corruption and murder.