A deformed person with nervous anxiety is looking out to sea, evidently awaiting the arrival of someone. He is a cripple, and presently we become aware that he is the despised member of a band of brigands, and is watching for their return. They arrive in their boats headed by their dreaded chieftain, Beppo. They are in a bad humor, and the unfortunate cripple is kicked and cuffed for no reason, except that he cannot return the blows of his tormentors. The reason is that one of the band has been captured, an insult and indignity that Beppo cannot and will not permit. He determines to rescue his man. Bernardi, the chief of police, is a man of strong will power and determination; he has made up his mind to rid the country of the gang of thieves and malefactors, of which Beppo is the chief. But they are elusive, nobody knows where their haunts and huts are. They disappear like magic at the slightest alarm.