A taxi driver at the airport immediately gets word to Frank Ginetta (Kirk Douglas), who hides, armed with a gun, until he realizes that the visitor he's been warned about is actually his younger brother Vinnie (Alex Cord).

In a flashback, Frank recalls better times in New York City, beginning with Vinnie's homecoming from military service and subsequent marriage to Emma Bertolo (Susan Strasberg).

And among those paying their respects as guests at the wedding are mob leaders like Egan (Murray Hamilton), Rotherman (Val Avery) and Levin (Alan Hewitt), who are the equals of Frank and Dominick in the New York region's organized crime.

Pretending to reconcile with Dominick for past differences, he offers to submit to the new deal, while in reality he is taking him to a deserted warehouse to be executed.

Realizing that it is Vinnie who has been forced under threats by Egan to do the job of killing him, Frank bitterly accepts this fate in the hope that it will save his brother's life and that of his family back in America.