The Bowery

In the Gay Nineties Bowery, saloon owner Chuck Connors confronts rival Steve Brodie after Brodie throws a melon on a dare. They learn of a Chinatown fire and mobilize their volunteer brigades, wagering $100 on who can extinguish the flames first. The challenge seeds a bitter feud that will drive the events to come.

As flames roar through the neighborhood, Brodie arrives first but Swipes McGurk blocks the hydrant from use. Connors then arrives and the rival brigades clash amid the smoke as the building burns and trapped people scream for help. The blaze becomes a turning point that fuels their rivalry.

Brodie bets that a boxer known as The Masked Marvel can defeat Connors’s fighter, Bloody Butch. The Marvel lands a knockout punch and is revealed to be John L. Sullivan, turning the wager into a sensational public moment.

Connors takes a homeless girl, Lucy Calhoun, to his apartment where he lives with Swipes. Lucy cleans and cooks, earning a warm welcome, but Swipes locks her in a closet and Connors is forced to intervene. After the incident, Swipes flees the Bowery.

That night Brodie invites Swipes to move in with him, and Lucy’s presence complicates matters. Brodie tries to seduce Lucy but she bites his hand, marking her as not merely Connors’ friend. The two men soon become rivals for Lucy’s affection, while Brodie dreams of a saloon bigger than Connors’.

Two brewers offer to sponsor Brodie if he can bring his name into prominence, so he plans a death-defying jump from the Brooklyn Bridge. Connors bets his saloon against a free burial that Brodie will survive the stunt. Brodie has a life-sized dummy made and Swipes to throw it off at the right moment, while a crowd of 100,000 gathers.

Left with few options, Brodie proceeds with the jump and is lifted in a triumphant parade, celebrated by the onlookers. The spectacle lifts his status and spurs Connors into a counter-move against the saloon’s rivals. The public display echoes the broader power struggle in the Bowery.

When Brodie's reputation soars, temperance activist Carrie Nation and her band of women arrive in the Bowery to tear down Connors' saloon with axes and hatchets. Connors seems to cheer them on, leveraging the controversy to watch the saloon be destroyed.

With the brewing war against Spain, Connors enlists to escape the Bowery's notoriety and join the fighting. Meanwhile Brodie reopens the refurbished saloon and tries to solidify his own empire in the neighborhood.

Connors returns from his brief enlistment to pack, only to find Swipes has returned as well, and the two men reconcile. The renewed bond sets the stage for the next clash with Brodie’s rising power.

Brodie’s rivals arrive with evidence that he did not truly jump by showing the dummy. Connors demands the saloon back, and a brutal fight erupts on a barge in the East River. In the end, Connors wins but is arrested for assault and battery with intent to kill.

Swipes urges the rivals to become friends, and Connors dares Brodie to join him in Cuba. In a farewell parade for departing soldiers, Lucy kisses Brodie and then Connors, while Swipes is revealed to be hiding in an artillery box on the supply wagon ahead of them.