New York 1974. Fifty-year-old Chris (Clive Owen) has just been released on good behavior after several years in prison following a gangland murder. Reluctantly waiting for him outside the gates is his younger brother Frank (Billy Crudup) a cop with a bright future. Chris and Frank have always been different and their father Leon (James Caan) who raised them alone seems to favor Chris despite all his troubles. Yet blood ties are the ones that bind and Frank hoping that his brother has changed is willing to give him a chance - he shares his home finds him a job and helps him reconnect with his children and his ex-wife Monica (Marion Cotillard). But Chris' inevitable descent back into a life of crime proves to be the last in a long line of betrayals and after his brother's latest transgressions Frank banishes him from his life. But it's already too late as the brothers' destiny is bound together forever.