Turning 18 is a highly-charged moment for anyone but when you’ve grown up in the slum of Pool Hall Hill crammed into Rio de Janeiro’s hillside where life is cheap and prospects are minimal, coming of age has its added tribulations. Wallace (Darlan Cunha) and Acerola (Douglas Silva) are inseparable childhood friends and closer than brothers. For Wallace, reaching his 18th birthday is a trigger to track down the father he’s never met; for Acerola it’s a time to take responsibility for his young family.

In the sultry heat of the teeming shanty town, the two friends are caught up in the violent gang wars which dominate everyone’s daily lives. Wallace’s cocky cousin Madrugadão (Jonathan Haagensen) is the local drug lord who rules his patch with ruthlessness and firepower. His put-upon former right-hand man Nefasto (Eduardo BR) has had enough of being Number Two and is rapidly building up a rival army which includes the brother of Wallace’s new girlfriend Camila. Acerola has his own problems: his wife Cristiane is threatening to move to Sao Paulo to earn enough to give them a chance to be a proper family, leaving him to look after their young son, Clayton.

As the gang warfare intensifies, the line between peaceful and violent lives is all but erased. Acerola must learn how to be a father while Wallace’s search for his own father leads him on a trail into his past. The devastating secret he discovers in the process threatens to destroy the two boys’ rock-solid friendship forever…