Pontecorvo is named Mayor of the City. His mission is to restore order in the city and to subdue the underworld. For this he will use the skills of Mateo and the help of Baeza, an infiltrated ruffian.
Plague decimates the crowded city, where many have arrived to embark for the New World to seek their fortune. Mateo Nunez is asked to discharge a debt to a dead friend - to bring his illegitimate son from the city. As Mateo seeks out the boy, Celso de Guevara is taken through the overcrowded slums and shown the body of a murdered man whose marked hands are holding a crucifix.—AnonymousB