Michael Sullivan works as an enforcer for his adopted father, Irish gangster John Rooney. When Sullivan's son, Mike Jr., witnesses one of his father's killings on Rooney's behalf, the gangster decides that his ward and his family are liabilities that must be removed. Sullivan tries to safeguard his son and get even with the man who betrayed him, while his son focuses on bonding with his emotionally distant father.

In a sleepy Northern California town in the 1940s, Ed Crane, a humble barber, suspeacts that his wife Doris is having an affair with her boss. When a stranger comes into town hinting that there is a fortune to be made in investing in the new invention of dry cleaning, Ed hatches a blackmail scheme he hopes will make him rich and get him some revenge at the same time. His plan goes horribly awry when he accidentally commits a murder for which Doris...