Street-wise undercover Federal agent Vinnie Terranova is released from prison after serving a false rap to establish his cover, and infiltrates the organized-crime Syndicate in Atlantic City-- where, with one slip of his cover, he could end up a dead man.

In an attempt to take over Sonny Steelgrave's business, mob head Paul Patrice frames Sonny for several murder attempts he makes on the life of the special prosecutor investigating Sonny.

A psychopathic murderer posing as Sonny's nephew double-crosses Sonny and holds Vinnie's girlfriend Gina hostage.

When Vinnie's young cousin, a boxer, is found dead of an apparent drug overdose, Vinnie jeopardizes his cover by going to "legals"-- the coroner, the homicide cops-- to get them moving on what he knows was a murder.

When the local cops put the heat on Sonny Steelgrave and bust up several of his secret deals, he smells a rat in the inner circle and Vinnie finds himself the number one suspect.

After his mother is mugged in Brooklyn, an enraged Vinnie sets out to find the punk who did it, but when he visits his mother in the hospital, it breaks his heart that she still won't forgive him for his life of "crime".