New York, 1846 - a brutal gang battle turns the snowy ground muddy with blood. Fifteen years later Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns to the Five Points district of Manhattan to avenge his father's death at the hands of Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis).
Leader of the anti-immigrant 'Native Americans' gang, Bill rules the neighbourhood with fear. Still, he happily employs this street-savvy unknown, who begins to find the father he lost in the man he must kill.