Motke grew up destitute; his only friends were the village dogs. He joins a traveling circus in order to get a hot meal, remaining at the bottom rung, until he decides to rebel against his fate and create a new life for himself. Motke steals the identity of one of the circus members and flees with his girlfriend.

In the big city Warsaw, the poor boy becomes a gangster who controls the underworld. Everything changes when Motke meets Hannah, a girl from a good home. In order to win her over, he is willing to sacrifice the crime empire he has created and abandon his previous love, but he quickly discovers that it is not so easy to escape one’s past.

The play King of Dogs looks into the darker corners of Jewish life in the Diaspora, its violence and desires, and raises the eternal question: can a person repent and change?