Tom Powers and Matt Doyle are best friends and fellow gangsters. Their lives are frowned on by Tom's WWI veteran brother Mike and by Matt's straitlaced sister Molly. From their teenage years into young-adulthood, Tom and Matt lead increasingly lucrative lives, bootlegging during the Prohibition era. Tom becomes more and more brazen in what he is willing to do and intolerant of those who disagree with him or cross him. When a mob boss dies in a freak accident, a rival bootlegging faction senses weakness among Tom and Matt's gang, which is led by Paddy Ryan. A gang war ensues, resulting in Paddy suggesting that Tom and Matt lay low. Tom's basic nature leads him to decide, instead, to take matters into his own hands.—Huggo