A criminal known as K rises to fame in Venice: we follow his life over twenty years, from the early 1960’s to the end of the 1970’s, from his difficult childhood as an half-Italian, half-Yugoslav émigré and son of a prostitute to his daring hold-ups and brazen escapes from prison. K as a young thug falls in love with Clara. It is the beginning of the love story of their life, but living outside the law can have cruel and irreparable consequences.