In Los Angeles, two rival gangs war with each other: the Hyde Park Gang, led by El Chivo, and the East Side Gangsters, led by Armand Tucker. Vice cop Max Ballister receives a call he assumes to be from his informant, Gary Morrison. Max leaves a romantic dinner with his wife and is gunned down. Max's angry father, Simon, a martial arts expert who is implied to be ex-CIA, moves to the neighborhood in which Max died and begins investigating. His landlady, Alice Park, who also runs a liquor store, aids him. The others do not know that the investigating cop, Frank Shaw, has formed a partnership with Tucker.