It's the 1960s and Rocket (LUIS OTÁVIO) is an 11-year-old kid growing up in the slums of Cidade de Deus outside Rio. He and other kids such as Benny (MICHEL DE SOUZA GOMES) and Li'l Dice (DOUGLAS SILVA) watch as an older trio of hoods - consisting of Rocket's brother Goose (RENATO DE SOUZA) and his friends Shaggy (JONATHAN HAAGENSEN) and Clipper (JEFECHANDER SUPLINO) - routinely hold up gas trucks and get into various other forms of trouble. When the trio gives Li'l Dice the opportunity to participate in a crime, the voracious thug-in-training does so with glee and never looks back.
In the 1970s, Rocket (ALEXANDRE RODRIGUES) is now a young man trying to figure out what to do with his life while hanging out with a group of friends including Thiago (DANIEL ZETTEL) and Angelica (ALICE BRAGA), with both of the guys being smitten with her. Li'l Dice, on the other hand, has gotten exactly what he wants. Renamed Li'l Zé (LEANDRO FIRMINO DA HORA), he now controls the city after taking over the lucrative drug business with Benny (PHELLIPE HAAGENSEN) and their army of young kids, including Steak & Fries (DARLAN CUNHA), who look up to them just as they did to the earlier trio of thugs.
Over the following years, however, his rule is challenged by various people, such as Carrot (MATHEUS NACHTERGAELE), a rival dealer. Then there's Knockout Ned (SEU JORGE), a bus driver so enraged by Li'l Zé and his gang raping his girlfriend that he sets out to kill the feared and ruthless leader. As his actions set off a massive gang war in the city, Rocket, now an aspiring photographer, sets out to capture the events on film and thus possibly give him a way out of the city and its years of poverty and strife.