While drinking beer in a bar, the mechanic José "Zezé" Rosa de Miranda helps a woman named Isabela from three men that are chasing her. Zezé is violently beaten and hits one man with a bottle in self-defense, killing him. When the police arrive, the gangsters flee as well as Zezé and Isabela that takes him to a shed in the slum on the Mangueira hill. The tabloid journalism nicknames Zezé calling him Mineirinho and the police believe he is a criminal. The drug dealer Cobrinha and his gang are hunting down Mineirinho and Isabela and stumble upon the policemen that are looking for Mineirinho on the hill and they kill the officers. The press credits the deaths to Mineirinho and the police try to catch Mineirinho watching and following his fiancee Maria. Meanwhile Mineirinho befriends the criminals Neném, Cabo and Onofre and becomes their leader in several heists. But the Chief of Police Geraldo is ordered to catch the wanted Mineirinho dead or alive.