1930s, New York's Lower East Side. At the death of their father, Morris Rabishevsky, twelve, apprenticed himself to a garment cutter in a clothing factory; Sol headed to accounting school; but Harry fell in with a gang of thugs. Morris steadily climbs through the ranks at the factory, goes out on his own, and convinces Sol to come work with him. But Harry can't be lured away from the power and the money that come from his association with Louis Buchalter, the most ruthless mobster in New York. When Buchalter sets his sights on the unions that staff the garment makers' factories, he pits brother against brother.
