For as long as he could remember, Henry Hill wanted to be a gangster. So, when he was 12 years old, he started running errands for the neighborhood wiseguy and extortionist, "Paulie" Cicero. By the time he was 21, Henry had made a name for himself and had a good life by stealing and reselling cargo. Along with Jimmy "The Gent" Conway and Tommy DeVito, Henry organizes and executes heists, big and small, for their boss and protector, Paulie. He marries Karen, a headstrong Jewish woman, who at first reluctantly and then enthusiastically embraced the gangster life. Even going to prison doesn't slow Henry down. But Henry's defiance of his boss' directive in dealing cocaine and Tommy's violent outbursts threaten to destroy the world the wiseguys have made for themselves. Even a $6 million payday from the great Lufthansa heist, the largest cash heist in American history, may not be enough to protect this group from their own mistakes.