Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers’ pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio’s favelas.

Best friends Deco (Lázaro Ramos) and Naldinho (Wagner Moura) co-own a cargo boat in Brazil’s Salvador de Bahia. They give a ride to a sultry prostitute named Karinna (Alice Braga), and soon both men fall prey to her considerable sexual charms, pushing the bonds of their friendship to the limit.

Cidade de Deus is a shantytown that started during the 1960s and became one of Rio de Janeiro’s most dangerous places in the beginning of the 1980s. To tell the story of this place, the movie describes the life of various characters, all seen by the point of view of the narrator, Buscapé. Buscapé was raised in a very violent environment. Despite the feeling that all odds were against him, he finds out that life can be seen with other eyes…