The film opens with criminal Dean Keaton lying badly wounded on a ship docked in the San Pedro Bay. He is confronted by a mysterious figure whom he calls "Keyser", who shoots him dead and sets fire to the ship,
The bloodbath on the ship leaves only two survivors: Arkosh Kovash, a Hungarian mobster hospitalized with severe burns; and Roger "Verbal" Kint, a con artist with cerebral palsy. Customs agent Dave Kujan flies in from New York City to interrogate Verbal, who describes in flashback the events that led him and four other criminals - Keaton, Michael McManus, Fred Fenster and Todd Hockney - onto the ship.