[1][2] In a fog-shrouded square in Bologna, a young man named Gabriele Ingenis roams among onlookers under the arcades, visibly dazed after a recent bloody shootout.

Gabriele, an Istrian refugee, had crossed paths with his old friend Corrado Minguzzi and Paolo Casaroli a few months earlier at a Bologna Luna Park.

As the gang becomes more organized, they stage a heist in Genoa, targeting a bank full of employees and customers, successfully emptying the safe.

Flush with cash, the three move from Bologna to Venice, living the good life by enjoying the company of easy-going women and trying their luck at the casino.

A journalist manages to talk to him, and upon leaving, hears the outlaw singing the chorus of "Paquito lindo," a song from the movie Fear and Sand.