An ex agent of the FBI and Interpol (Tony Lo Bianco) is expelled by the CIA and he starts a detective agency in Genoa, great Italian city. Here he is known as 'The American', despite his origins are Sicilian. Dr. Mayer entrusts him to investigate on the sequestration and murder of the shipowner Mayer, as well as of the recovery of a million of Liras poured for the not happened liberation of the dead one. 'The American' has to overcome a double barrier: commissioner Lo Bianco that fears the illegal methods and a violent gang headed by the gangster called 'The French'. 'The American' gets the friendship of Lo Bianco after manifold mishaps, showing to be still an excellent police officer. In the middle of the seventies Italy lived its darker season, because victim of the terrorism. Those were the so-called 'Anni di Piombo' (Leaden Years), so many Italian films reflect the fear that could be read in the eyes of Italians. This rare crime-cop movie is an explicit example of that climate. Excellent O.S.T. by Franco Micalizzi. French version (dubbed in Italian at bcult.it) is 95 minutes longer.