In 1955, teenager Henry Hill becomes enamored by the criminal life and Mafia presence in East New York, a working-class Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. He begins working for local caporegime Paulie Cicero and his associates Jimmy Conway, an Irish-American truck hijacker and gangster, and Tommy DeVito, a fellow juvenile delinquent. Henry begins as a fence for Jimmy, gradually working his way up to more serious crimes.
