After the son of a Chinatown drug lord is killed by the police, hitman John Lee (Chow Yun Fat) is ordered to exact revenge against one of the cops. Lee locates the cop and prepares to take him down with a sniper rifle, but finds himself unable to do so, witnessing the bond between the officer and his own young son. When the drug lord learns of his failure, replacement killers are found and ordered to take care of both the cop and Lee. Fearing for the lives of his sister and mother, Lee seeks out someone not associated with the local Chinese mafia in order to create forged passports. He meets up with document forger Meg Coburn (Mira Sorvino), but their transaction is interrupted by gunfire. In action-packed scenes, the pair fight off their assailants, save the cop and his son from the killers, and race to get Lee's own family safely onto a plane back to China.