City of God served up a sprawling saga of slum life, taking us through three decades and following multiple characters. City of Men narrows the focus down to a pair of young men, Acerola or Ace (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha or Wallace (Darlan Cunha), who are both about to turn eighteen. Ace is already married and has fathered a child. He mourns his unexciting sex life. The first and onlyh woman he had sex with got pregnant and he ended up marrying her. Wallace, on the other hand, expresses concern over the fact that he doesn't know who his father is and when he turns eighteen his I.D. card will say "father unknown." This leads the two friends on a sometime humorous search for Wallace's father.