| Director | Andrea Berloff |
|---|---|
| Budget | $38 million |
| Box office | $16 million |
In Hell's Kitchen 1978, three women are married to members of the O'Carroll crime family. Kathy is married to Jimmy, a kind man who is increasingly disillusioned with the mob; Ruby is married to Kevin, the son of boss Helen O'Carroll; and Claire is married to Rob, who frequently beats and abuses her.
One night, the men are arrested in a sting by FBI agents and are each sentenced to three years in prison. Jack "Little Jackie" Quinn assumes Kevin's role in the family and assures the wives that they'll be cared for, but provides them barely enough to live on.
When the women discover that many of the businesses that pay the family protection money are upset with Little Jackie because they are not receiving any protection, they persuade the owners to start paying them instead and provide other favors for their neighbors, making a profit and earning the respect of the community. Jackie finds out and confronts the women, but is subsequently killed by an enforcer called Gabriel O’Malley when he assaults Claire. Gabriel is secretly in love with Claire. With Jackie out of the way and Gabriel backing them up, the women effectively control the family. Gabriel and Claire begin a relationship.
After successfully "persuading" the local Jewish community to only hire Irish American Union workers to construct their buildings, the women are ordered to meet with Alfonso Coretti, the head of Brooklyn's Italian Mafia who is unhappy with Irish Americans encroaching on his territory. He insists that they start dealing with him and reveals that their husbands are set to be released in four months, which they hadn't realized.
Knowing that they are in a precarious position, Coretti says he'll support them and split control of the city in return for Italian Americans getting construction jobs in Hell's Kitchen. The women agree knowing they have no other choice, but cut a deal to keep control over everything else on their turf.
Ruby kills her hated mother-in-law Helen after constant criticism of her marriage to Kevin and a wish for him to divorce her when he returns.
Four months pass and the husbands are released; Kevin is determined to reassert his power as Helen's heir; disliking their household's current division of labour, Jimmy pressures Kathy to give up what she is doing; Rob is furious that Claire has left him for Gabriel.
When Rob strikes Claire several times for refusing to take him back, she shoots him with a gun from under her pillow. Coretti then contacts the women and warns them that Kevin, backed by other members of the family, has ordered them to be whacked for the deaths of Helen and Rob. Ruby then pays the Coretti family to have her husband and his friends murdered, however, Kathy makes her drop the young Colin whom she is fond of from the list, and demands the Coretti family not hurt Jimmy. Kevin and the implicated family members are killed. In an act of revenge, the young Colin kills Claire before being shot by Gabriel.
After Claire's funeral, Kathy realizes that Ruby has been secretly keeping an FBI agent on the family's payroll. Ruby explains that she set up their husbands to be arrested, as Kevin had refused to let her have a role in the family. Kathy finds that Jimmy is trying to make a deal with the Coretti family to deal with him and cut Kathy out. He takes his children as protection against the Corettis. He tells Kathy that she "didn't have a place" in the world for him, and her mobster career was "humiliating" to him.
Losing trust in Jimmy for "put[ting] [his] ego before [their] children's safety", Kathy tells Alfonso Coretti she relinquishes protection over her husband, and the Corettis whack Jimmy. At Jimmy's funeral, Kathy tells her father that she entered the crime business not for the sake of her children but to attain autonomy.
Ruby asks Kathy to meet her so they can discuss what to do next. When Kathy arrives, she finds that Ruby is waiting with Gabriel to kill her so she can take over as sole boss. Having anticipated this, Kathy reconciles with the O'Carroll family and brings all of their muscle as backup to the meeting. Gabriel admits that with Claire dead, he no longer has any ties to the mob and deserts Ruby. Kathy tells Ruby that from now on, they will share the responsibility of leading the family. The film ends with Kathy and Ruby making plans to expand their territory to Uptown.