In New York City, unscrupulous District Attorney James DiAngelo arranges for the murder of African-American mob boss Tommy Gibbs, who controls a large portion of Harlem. Tommy had possession of ledgers detailing payoffs to corrupt politicians and policemen, but, by coercing his former girl friend, Helen Bradley, into helping them, Tommy’s enemies have succeeded in stealing the ledgers. Tommy is shot by one of DiAngelo’s thugs as he is leaving Tiffany’s, but Tommy fights off his pursuers, retrieves the ledgers and phones his estranged father, Thomas Gibbs, Sr. Telling his father not to let him down, as he has done in the past, Tommy asks to meet him where he grew up. At a block of ruined tenement-houses in Harlem, Papa Gibbs finds Tommy, then helps him to a nearby park, where he buries the ledgers. After Papa alerts Tommy’s men, the wounded racketeer is rushed to Harlem Hospital, where the armed gunmen force a surgeon to treat him. On Tommy’s orders, Papa calls DiAngelo, warning him that Tommy has retrieved the ledgers and wants safe passage from the hospital. DiAngelo reluctantly orders the police to comply, although after Tommy is safe, Papa is kidnapped by DiAngelo and two of his hoods, who threaten to throw him off a high building. After DiAngelo leaves, Papa wrangles a gun from one man and shoots both of them. He is then taken by Zacharias, Tommy’s ambitious “enforcer,” to Tommy’s hideout. Although Papa is horrified at what he has done, Tommy congratulates him by promising to make him his partner while he rebuilds his empire. To take revenge against Helen, who had left him in order to marry his best friend, now deceased, Tommy has Papa abduct her two young children, whom he intends to rear as his own. After killing the informant who identified him in front of Tiffany’s and also “drying up” a heroin connection that is a main source of revenue for the white mob and DiAngelo’s corrupt network, Tommy leaves Papa in charge while he and his men travel to an island off the Florida Keys, at which many of the crime syndicate heads are vacationing. After snorkeling to the beach, the men storm the area, aided by two African-American maids who work there. Following a gun battle, Tommy forces the survivors to order the law enforcement officials on their payroll to arrange for him and Papa to be exonerated of any criminal charges. Soon after, a grand jury finds the Gibbses innocent and opens an investigation into an alleged police conspiracy against them. DiAngelo is infuriated by Tommy’s tactics, but Tommy warns that if he does not get what he wants, he will declare war, killing every top-level official. Tommy’s gang then targets drug pushers in Harlem, assassinating numerous dealers in order to rid the area of drugs and impinge further on DiAngelo’s crooked profits. Meanwhile, Reverend Rufus Fairchild, a onetime criminal turned legitimate preacher, rails against Tommy’s reign of violence, even though he and Tommy were childhood friends. When Tommy confronts Rufus, Rufus asserts that he will continue speaking out until Tommy is deposed. An irate Tommy proclaims that Rufus should instead attack the “white bosses” who sell heroin to neighborhood children, but Rufus retorts that Tommy’s only motive is to make money. Later, Helen hounds her way into Tommy’s lair, begging to see her children. Although Helen protests that Tommy will have to kill her to keep her away, Tommy snarls that she will be the “safest woman in New York” in order to prolong her suffering and, while forbidding Papa from harming her, orders him to make sure she never returns. Tommy visits Rufus soon after to apologize for his earlier treatment of him, but the dubious Rufus rejects his check for $5,000. The money is accepted, however, by one of Rufus’ most devout parishioners, Sister Jennifer, who sees through Tommy’s bravado and declares him a sad, lonely man. Tommy is attracted to the kind, straight-talking Jennifer and begins dating her. As time passes, Helen’s children grow and come to think of Tommy and Jennifer as their parents. Late one night, Helen, who has become a streetwalker, is brutally strangled by Zach, who has plotted with DiAngelo to take over Tommy’s territory by dividing the Gibbs men. DiAngelo informs Tommy of Helen’s death, telling him that the evidence points to his father, and Tommy, knowing of Papa’s animosity toward Helen, believes the lie, despite Papa’s protestations of innocence. Eager to leave New York and assuming that he will be punishing Papa by making him run the dangerous area on his own, Tommy leaves with the children and Jennifer, whom he marries in Los Angeles. After Tommy’s departure, a gang war breaks out, with many men being murdered. In Los Angeles, Tommy assures Jennifer that he has become a legitimate businessman, although she worries about his father’s bloodshed and racketeering. As they argue, Jennifer runs upstairs, where she is attacked by a hiding assassin. Tommy prevails against the hired killers sent by Zach, then comforts the terrorized Jennifer. In New York, Papa meets with Zach to negotiate a peace, but the meeting degenerates into a fistfight, with Zach pummeling the older man until he dies from a heart attack. Rufus, who has reconciled with Tommy, warns him not to return to New York, but Tommy sneaks into the city and goes on a killing spree, targeting leading members of the underworld. Worried, DiAngelo and Zach contemplate their next move and, aware that Jennifer has left Tommy and taken their daughter, decide to kidnap his son, Jason. Meanwhile, Tommy uncovers the ledgers and sends them to a senatorial investigation committee before continuing his vendetta. After Zach eludes him, Tommy follows him to the airport, where he just misses the Los Angeles-bound plane Zach has boarded. Racing across the parking lot to another terminal, Tommy catches a different plane for Los Angeles, and at the airport there, kills Zach. Upon returning home, Tommy learns from Rufus that Jason has been taken by DiAngelo. Rufus wants to call the police and decries Tommy’s incessant need for revenge, but Tommy promises that he will give DiAngelo whatever he wants for Jason’s safe return. At the rendezvous point, two hoodlums sneer at Tommy’s request to see his son and are about to gun him down when Rufus suddenly appears and shoots one of them. Stating that he could not let Tommy get killed, Rufus vows to keep trying to save his soul. After torturing the other thug, they learn that DiAngelo is holding Jason at a remote mission. In the wooded area, Tommy searches for his son until DiAngelo surprises him and shoots, killing Rufus. Tommy succeeds in disarming DiAngelo and, after a fistfight, hangs him to death with his necktie. Embracing his son, Tommy declares that they are going away to start a new life, and that he will love him just like he loved his father.