On a boat in the North Sea, Mickey Steele, Darren Nicholls and Jack Whomes are smuggling drugs into Essex. Unbeknownst to the others, Nicholls is a police informant who has told D.I. Stone, a police officer, about the operation. The contraband still makes its way to Essex because Steele, sensing trouble, sends Whomes away on a separate boat to keep the shipment safe.
Nicholls, who serves as the film’s narrator, reveals that the trio are suppliers to an Essex-based dealer named Tony Tucker. Tucker, his right-hand man Craig Rolfe and the psychopathic Pat Tate become the three core members of the so‑called Essex boys. The gang’s influence swells until a girl falls into a coma and later dies after taking a “pure” ecstasy pill, an event that rattles everyone involved and draws police attention.
Enraged, Tucker and Tate threaten Steele. To repay them, Steele reveals a job in Amsterdam, a move that Nicholls, Tate, Rolfe and Steele pull off successfully. Yet Nicholls is wracked with guilt afterward for killing three men. The pressure mounts as the crew’s thirst for power grows.
Meanwhile, Tate views himself as unstoppable and cheats on his partner Karen, who ultimately leaves him for Steele. Tate’s volatile behavior continues as he brutalizes a pizza restaurant employee after being refused a bespoke pie for his new partner, a moment that gives the authorities a potential charge against a gang member—though D.I. Stone still faces scrutiny for how he handles the case.
The Essex boys, now wealthier, turn to veteran criminal Billy Carmichael and, despite Tucker’s quarrel with Carmichael, secure a share of a lucrative guns-and-drugs shipment heading into Rettendon. They also recruit a former Carmichael associate, Ronnie Walsh, described as psychopathic and capable of terrible violence. Fearing for his life, Nicholls informs Steele of the shipment, and Steele sets a plan in motion to kill Rolfe, Tucker and Tate.
One night, Tate, Tucker, Rolfe and Walsh drive to a farm track in Rettendon. They snort cocaine and joke about Walsh’s break with Carmichael as they approach a gate. Two masked gunmen step out and open fire on the Range Rover, killing Rolfe, Tucker and Tate, but sparing Walsh. Steele and Whomes soon arrive to discover the carnage, and the next morning the bodies are found, with Stone acknowledging that it was the outcome he wanted.
Steele and Whomes return to Steele’s home with Nicholls, who had driven the shooters to the location. Steele grows increasingly suspicious of Nicholls and pressures him to come in, only for Nicholls to call the police and report the crimes. Whomes discovers this, confronts Nicholls with a shotgun, but Nicholls manages to escape to a nearby field. Steele orders Whomes to return to the house and then pursues Nicholls to a farm, where he quietly tells him, > you’re dying today.
After a brief chase, Steele corners Nicholls and, just as he is about to kill him, the police arrive to seize him. Nicholls closes the film by saying that after the events, “[he] just vanished.”
