The story is simple, yet gripping in its telling by master director Cesar 'Chat' Gallardo. It is essentially about the brutalization of a man by his environment. In a run-in with the ruling hoodlums of the place Nanding (Fernando Poe, Jr.) kills one them and is sent to jail. While he is in prison, his sister and mother suffer indignities from the criminal kingpin of Isla Putting Bato and Nanding bolts jail on a mission of revenge. While on his quest for vendetta he meets another victim of Putting Bato's brutal society, Charito Solis, and they find in each other the tenderness and solace each was denied before.—BGP