Sydney, 1969. Barry Ryan (Bryan Brown), affable family man and gangster, controls most of the city’s booming poker machine trade, when the US mafia decides it wants to take over his patch. Barry’s nephew Darcy (Sam Worthington), just back from serving in Vietnam, joins his uncle’s crew as the bullets start flying. Hoping to avoid a war, Ryan invites the two mafia emissaries on a pig-shooting trip to the outback. Tony (John Goodman), older and wiser of the two, wants to make a deal, but hothead Sal (Felix Williamson) prefers to shoot people. Barry’s wife Sharon (Toni Collette) helps her husband decide what to do.