Freddie Jackson (Tom Hardy) is just out of prison. He's done his time, made the right connections and now he's ready to use them. His wife Jackie (Kierston Wareing) dreams of having her husband home but she's forgotten the rows and the girls Freddie can't leave alone. His younger cousin, Jimmy (Shaun Evans), dreams of making a name for himself on Freddie's coattails.

At first Freddie gets everything he ever wanted and Jimmy is taken along for the ride: a growing crime empire that gives them all the respect and money they've hungered for. But behind it all sits Ozzy (Brian Cox) - the legendary criminal godfather who manipulates Freddie and Jimmy's fates from behind the bars of his prison cell.

Bitter, resentful and increasingly unstable, Jackie sees her life crumble while her little sister Maggie's (Charlotte Riley) star rises. In love with Freddie's cousin Jimmy, Maggie is determined not to end up like her sister.

Freddie and Jackie watch Jimmy and Maggie achieve all the dreams that they themselves failed to realise: love, family, stability and respect.

Jealous resentment and an inability to control himself force Freddie to put both the business and family at risk. Torn between being loyal to a cousin he loves and being true to his own destiny, Jimmy is forced to decide between protecting Freddie or the life he has built with Maggie.