This film follows the life of Paul Castellano, a mobster who rose in the ranks of New York City's Gambino crime family with the help of his considerable intelligence until he was picked to become the reigning don of the family in the 1970s. Flush with his power, he charts a new course for the mob with the emphasis on a low profile approach exploiting quiet crime business like labour union control while promising to deal with murderous severity anyone he catches dealing with drugs. Yet for all the sureness of his position's authority, his own indiscretions in his personal life provide complications of his own. With this being combined with the growing restiveness of his underling's discomfort with his quiet approach and the FBI agents who are determined to bring him down, then the stage is set for a tragic fall.