Tommy Caffee is a rising star in Rhode Island politics and the prince of his home ward, a working class Irish district known as the Hill. Local gangster Patty Mullin’s murder opens the door to the return of Tommy’s brother Michael, whom Patty had sworn to kill. As Michael starts reclaiming his lost criminal enterprises, Irish mob boss Freddie Cork threatens to whack Michael unless Tommy throws state contracts Freddie’s way. Meanwhile, Michael gets into a beef with Moe Riley, one of Freddie Cork’s underlings, who is currently in control of Michael’s old turf. Eileen Caffee, Tommy’s wife, has secrets of her own: she’s meeting an old boyfriend, now a postman, at a local motel, where they smoke dope and have sex. In the end, Michael achieves a tenuous treaty with Freddie.

Defying Freddie’s direct orders, Michael and his old partner, Pete McGonagle, intimidate a local merchant into selling them her store for half its worth. When the merchant goes to Tommy to complain, Tommy passes her off to police detective Declan Giggs, who used to date Tommy’s sister in high school. Declan compromises himself when he makes the complaint go away. Tommy’s efforts to stop the new highway, including a deal with the mysterious power-broker Judd, lead him to bribe and blackmail two of his fellow representatives. The conflict between Eileen’s public demeanor and private pain are thrown into relief when she learns that her sister-in-law is having medical problems.

A local garbage strike puts Tommy in the difficult position of mediating between the garbage collectors’ union, controlled by Freddie Cork, and the mayor of Providence. To end the strike, he is forced to surrender a piece of his independence to Judd. Eileen struggles to pull out of a tailspin after her lover Carl ends their illicit affair. Michael’s continuing effort to expand his criminal activities is thwarted when he discovers that his old gang has lost its teeth and that he and Pete are on their own. He’s further disappointed when he goes to visit his old girlfriend Kath Parry and finds that she’s married and has two children. In the end, Michael’s frustration explodes in the wrong place at the wrong time in front of the wrong person -– his eight-year-old niece, Noni.

Based on a tip from Moe Riley, Treasury agents, looking for Michael’s counterfeit currency, raid Rose Caffee’s house during Sunday dinner, when the entire family is present. The agents don’t find the currency, but bad publicity generated by the raid causes the Speaker to kill an important real estate deal that Tommy desperately needs. To survive, Tommy is forced to pledge his fealty to the Speaker. For Tommy’s oldest daughter, Mary Rose, the raid initiates a growing fascination with her dangerous uncle, Michael. Michael, in revenge for the raid, frames Moe Riley for murder.

When Freddie Cork refuses to let Michael and Pete play on his softball team in a local bar tournament, Michael goes out and takes over his own bar. When the two teams meet, things get stormy. Rose discovers firsthand the destructive power of globalization; as a shop steward for her union, she loses a fight to stop layoffs within her factory and is herself fired. When the Speaker proposes a new waste disposal station in Tommy’s district, Tommy plays fast and loose to make sure his constituents are properly compensated; if along the way a few extra dollars end up in his own pocket, so be it.

When Declan and Ralph mistakenly shoot an undercover Federal agent, Michael steps forth to help them get rid of the body. Though Declan and Ralph get away clean, their partnership is now contaminated. Tommy’s embarrassed that he had to borrow money from his in-laws and sets out to pay them back. Using his political pull with the zoning board, Tommy lands himself a big fat real estate commission. Eileen’s substance abuse gets out of hand and causes her to abandon the family cat out in the woods. Guilt-stricken, she returns to retrieve the cat and is arrested for erratic behavior. Forced to bail her out, Tommy can no longer deny the problems in his marriage. Mary-Rose finds a joint in Eileen’s pocket and can’t resist trying it. When her uncle Michael catches her, her fascination with him only intensifies. She ends up working in his liquor store after school.