Jess is a petty thief working the teeming streets around Quiapo Church. Finally caught for snatching a cell phone, he’s put through the system for the first time, and Fajardo proves rampant institutional corruption is often the root cause of life cycles like Jess.Stealing a middle-class woman's smartphone is the biggest mistake in petty criminal Jestoni \"Jess\" Biag: it gets him locked up and waterboarded and gives him a crash-course in the workings of the deeply-corrupt system personified by his nemesis, Inspector Domingo. Further, the phone's memory contains an embarrassing video that makes the owner, Grace Rosuello, determined to get it back, and her persistence lands Jess in custody.