In the Martin Scorsese-directed premiere of this drama set in Atlantic City at the dawn of Prohibition, political boss Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi) brokers a sale of illegal booze for visiting New York gangster Arnold Rothstein, and takes an interest in a local housewife with an abusive husband. Meanwhile, World War I veteran and Thompson protégé Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt) meets a hoodlum from Chicago named Al Capone.