Tom Powers (James Cagney) is a young hood who lives a poor and unfulfilling life as a small time crook. He begins to become very ambitious though, and begins to rise through the ranks of the most famous and successful criminals in the violent city of Chicago. This all changes though, when Tom’s gang’s leader Nails Nathan (Leslie Fenton) is brutally murdered. Other gangs, believing that Tom’s gang is now weak, swoop in and attack hoping to gain their territory of business. Now it is up to Tom to fight them off as he becomes a legend bathed in infamy in his hometown.