Italy, 1945. The war has finally ended and the country is in shambles. Law enforcement agencies are grasping to regain the people's trust. Cells of demobilized Resistance fighters have stepped into the power vacuum, operating less as police than as ungovernable vigilante bands. Commissario De Luca hasn't slept in days. He's on the run, weaving his way from one small country town to another - posing as a certain Giovanni Morandi to avoid reprisals for the role he played under the fascist dictatorship. Recognized by a member of the Partisan Police, who threatens to expose him, De Luca is forced to assist the investigation of a brutal multiple homicide. At first, the crime doesn't appear to have anything to do with politics. But before long the Commissario is thrown headfirst into the nation's dangerous postwar power struggles. All the while, the risk of being unmasked looms. In a country bent on vengeance, the consequences could be fatal.