Siffredi, a prominent gangster in 1930s Marseille, learns that the murder of his associate and closest friend Capella was ordered by a new arrival in the city, Volpone. In revenge, he kills Volpone's brother by throwing him from a moving train. A gang war ensues. Volpone's men win, capturing Siffredi and putting his mistress Lola in a brothel. Siffredi is humiliated by the gang by turning him into an alcoholic wreck who is shut up in a psychiatric hospital. Rescued by the only other survivor of the gang, he escapes by boat to Italy. Left supreme in Marseille, Volpone is backed by the government of Nazi Germany and has the police in his pocket.
Three years later, Siffredi has recovered his health, made some money and assembled a new gang. Returning to Marseille, they free Lola from the brothel and in a new war eliminate most of Volpone's men. Capturing Volpone’s right-hand man together with the police commissioner who kowtows to him, Siffredi makes the two roaring drunk and calls in journalists to publicise the shameful spectacle. A new police commissioner decides to let Siffredi finish the job. When Volpone tries to flee to Germany, Siffredi captures him on the train and stuffs him into the firebox of the locomotive. Not wanting to start again in Marseille, with Lola and his gang he then takes a ship for the United States.
