Jack Ruby, Danny Aiello stands at the center of a sprawling, troubled world as the film opens with him revisiting a past he can’t quite place as real or imagined—a dream that lingers in the air. A shockingly brutal image follows: a suited man tortured, hung on a meat hook, and drained of blood, a graphic warning that hints at the danger simmering beneath Dallas’s surface.
In 1962 Dallas, Ruby runs the struggling Carousel Club, a once-thriving burlesque venue now showing signs of neglect. He endures a lackluster night as an aging dancer named Telephone Trixie performs, and he laments the club’s faltering fortunes. That same night, he makes a quiet, pragmatic link with two corrupt Dallas cops to supply narcotics, underscoring how deeply entangled he is in a corrupt ecosystem.
A young, battered woman named Sheryl Ann DuJean crosses Ruby’s path, hinting at a life wrecked by abuse. When she ends up alone in a diner near the bus station, Ruby offers her care without any sexual motive, and she steps into the apartment above the Carousel Club. The next day, Ruby speaks with Diego, Maurice Benard, the Cuban exile who works behind the bar, about the club’s bleak future. When a scheduled dancer cancels, Sheryl Ann—now stepping into a new chapter—volunteers to perform. Ruby, taken by her resolve, gives her a chance, and she takes on the stage name Candy Cane, delivering a bold and fearless routine that reinvigorates the crowd. A genuine friendship blossoms between them, built on honesty and shared risk.
Ruby’s past life resurfaces when his old mob associate, Louie Vitali, arrives with a dangerous proposition: take on a secret assignment in Cuba, originally meant for the man killed at the outset. Joe Cortese portrays Vitali, who pushes Ruby toward a life of higher stakes. He brings Candy along, and the trio heads to Havana. There they encounter Santos Alicante, an elderly mobster imprisoned since the Cuban Revolution. The mission is officially to extract Santos, but in private Vitali reveals a hidden order—to kill him with a disguised pistol-camera. Ruby disobeys, kills Vitali, and, with the help of guards, frees Santos. The escape by boat leads them to New Orleans, where Ruby secures new identity papers for Santos through an old contact, David Ferrie. Candy and Ruby part ways with Santos, who goes his own direction, and the lovers return to Dallas with a renewed sense of purpose.
Back at the club, Candy rises to become the main attraction, and business booms again. She endures a brutal intrusion from her abusive ex-husband Hank, whom Ruby defeats and warns to stay away. A mysterious visitor named Maxwell arrives, hinting at government ties and demanding that Ruby begin informing on Santos and his circle, providing a tape recorder as leverage. Ruby suspects Maxwell’s CIA connections, even as Maxwell remains evasive about his true role.
Ruby and Candy venture to Las Vegas, where Santos opens a flashy casino. At a lavish gala, President John F. Kennedy appears by helicopter, and Candy sits at the President’s table with Ferrie while Ruby records mob discussions about a plan to smuggle explosive cigars to Fidel Castro. Maxwell later meets Ruby outside Las Vegas and implies a larger target—perhaps another assassination—though he withholds specifics. Candy, meanwhile, is offered a singing contract backed by powerful figures and decides she will stay in Vegas, leaving Ruby to confront the danger alone. Ruby trains with firearms, while Ferrie and Diego head to New Orleans and approach Lee Harvey Oswald to recruit him for their schemes.
Back in Dallas, Ruby meets with Santos and Sam Giancana, who inform him that the original plan to target Castro has shifted to something bigger and more destructive. After he leaves, Giancana speaks with Maxwell, tightening the web of influence around Ruby. Candy returns abruptly, confessing she walked away from the Vegas job, and Ruby senses a broader conspiracy between the CIA and the mob. Proby, his boss, urges him to drop the matter.
On November 22, 1963, Dallas is shaken by the assassination of JFK. The film depicts Diego firing from the Texas School Book Depository with Oswald acting as his handler, while a second team fires the fatal shot from the grassy knoll. Ruby watches the catastrophe unfold on television and, when Ferrie visits the club, is warned to stay silent and fade away. But Ruby resolves to act. The following day, he fatally shoots Oswald during a police transfer, a moment that seals his fate in the public eye.
In prison, Ruby refuses to plead insanity or offer explanations, insisting he should be taken to Washington to testify. Maxwell’s watching presence lingers as he is convicted and sentenced to death. Ruby presses for a Congressional hearing, but the request is ignored. Candy visits him in prison, urging discretion for her own safety, while Ruby suspects he is being slowly poisoned by injections. He ultimately dies of cancer in 1967, his long-shot bid to testify before Congress left unrealized and unresolved.
