Long separated from his Russian family, hitman Joshua returns to Brighton Beach for a contract killing for the Russian Mafia. His abusive father, Arkady, banned him from returning after Joshua committed his first murder. He takes up residence in a hotel, and soon everyone knows he has returned. He goes home to visit his dying mother, Irina, and prepares for the assassination, getting drawn back into the criminal community he left behind.

After escaping the USSR in the 1980s, a Jewish family from Odessa struggles to remain on the right side of the law at their bathhouse in New York City.