An ex-convict struggles to survive by brute force alone in a turn-of-the-century slum in Braila. Codine is the thug who served 10 years for murdering a friend. He returns home to his miserly mother, whose penny-pinching ways infuriate her son. A young boy looks up to Codine, and through the man’s eyes he sees the economic and social injustices from an adult perspective.