Ballad in song and counter-song: first voice, Domenico Carunchio, a criminal from Puglia who tells his life story.
From his childhood as a sub-proletarian to his sacred oath as a member of the Camorra, up to his arrest and refusal to feel repentant. Rather defeated, crushed by the fate of carrying that smell of carbolic acid with him forever.
Mimmo Carunchio is the soldier of an enemy army who does not surrender to the winner. When in his city development and degradation sadly become linked, for him enlisting in organized crime means escaping not only poverty and degradation itself, but also the many clichés of the South.