New York at the beginning of the 1900’s is a Gomorrah taken by storm by hordes of immigrants fleeing Europe, scourged by hunger and revolutions. It is a megalopolis torn apart between the underworld that flourishes in the shadow of prohibition and a working-class population that takes to the streets to cry out its desperation. In the ill-famed back alleys of Brooklyn, two families of Russian Jews that had escaped together from the pogroms, raise their children. Every day the parents find themselves praying to the merciful God who let them live, but their two sons tread different paths. Because Sholem Lipsky and Jacob Berkowitz are anything but friends, even though both repudiate the religion of their fathers and are a shame for those who brought them into the world. In everyday life, they are on opposite sides of the barricades: Sholem organizes strikes in the factories; Jacob beats the hell out of the strikers trying to prevent the scabs from working in their stead. However, the union organizer has another reason for hating the butcher in the pay of the Mafia: his own physical handicap reminds him of that every morning. But the moment of the showdown is near, and he only needs to be patient. In a spiral of violence and vendetta that will drag the two life-long enemies down to Hell under the hieratic gaze of the Lord of the World, the tragic epilogue is played out.