Eddie Marino is a factory worker in New York City. He has a wife named Vickie and a son named Scott. Eddie's friend and co-worker Nick and some of the factory's other workers have formed a vigilante group because Nick and the group are fed up with the pimps, gangs, and drug dealers who keep taking over the neighborhoods. Nick and his group are also sick and tired of the police, because the police always fail to protect people who become victims. Eddie goes home from work one night, only to discover that Vickie has been stabbed, and Scott has been shot dead. Frederico "Rico" Melendez, the leader of a Puerto Rican street gang, is arrested for Vickie's stabbing and Scott's murder. Assistant District Attorney Mary Fletcher plans to put Rico away for as long as possible, since New York doesn't have the death penalty. Nick tries to convince Eddie to join the vigilante group, but Eddie turns Nick down, preferring to let the courts handle Rico.