Chris Taggart is a ruthless, driven, real estate entrepreneur whose buildings have changed the skyline of New York. Young, handsome, irresistible to women, Taggart has won it all with his bare hands and fierce ambition. But his dazzling success can never erase the bitter memory of his father's death at the hands of the mob - and now Taggart sets out to use his wealth and power to destroy the men whom he holds responsible.

It is a secret vendetta - a war, in fact - that Taggart launches single-handedly against the Five Families of New York. It pits him against some of the toughest men in organized crime - as well as his own brother, a crusading assistant US attorney, one of the strike force prosecutors.

Taggart risks his fortune, his reputation, finally, his life, to get revenge; only to find that he has instead become one of them, that his triumph over criminals has turned him into a more dangerous threat than any mob boss in New York.