1969 Sydney, Australia - Crime is cool, cops are crooked and 20 bucks buys you a whole night out. Life is good for local crime boss Barry Ryan (Bryan Brown). He's married to the hottest girl in town (Toni Collette), he runs the girls, the clubs and the illegal casinos and not even crooked Detective Ray (Sam Neill) dares to stand in his way.
But when the Mafia dispatch Chicago hoods, Tony (John Goodman) and his hotheaded sidekick, Barry's empire is threatened. Using underhanded tactics and good old-fashioned violence, he decides to give the Yanks a lesson in outback hospitality and sets in motion a plan to keep his precious turf to himself.