Martina is 14. She searches for her identity floundering between her mother's disordered life and the streets of suburban Rome, peopled by kids living by their wits. She is placed under the care of a young social worker, Giovanni Scalia. Fiammetta Saracino is a benevolent policewoman, especially concerned with youngsters; but when Martina refuses to inform on Ali, hypothetical father and boss of the fake sauna where her mother works, the woman is transformed into a killing machine on the trail of the girl and her boyfriend Sciu. The conditioning suffered by Fiammetta is strongly revealed in her profound personality, and is not much different from that of many other scared animals as they prepare to cross the road.