Plot

Three years ago when Danny Quinn left Southie, a tough Irish working-class neighborhood in South Boston, he left behind a world of crime and betrayal. Upon his return, Danny is forced to make a risky decision.

South Boston Irish bad boy Danny Quinn returns back home from New York and gets stuck between his pals, who are supported by one Irish mafia clan, and his family, which are members of another.—Anonymous

Danny Quinn (Donnie Wahlberg) is a Irish-American former "street kid" from South Boston, colloquially known as "Southie," who returns home from New York City after three years away. He finds his mother Mrs. Quinn (Anne Meara) overwhelmed with worry as her other three kids are caught up in the madness of the hardscrabble working-class neighborhood in which drinking, sex, and fighting is the way of life. Danny tracks down his brothers only to find out they're deeply embedded in the Irish mob in Boston and in debt to local mobster Colie Powers (Lawrence Tierney). His younger sister Kathy (Rose McGowan), meanwhile, became a barfly in Danny's absence.

Danny must get his hands on some quick cash in order to stop his brothers from getting their legs broken and his sister off the streets. In his pursuit to help his ailing mother and right his family's name on the streets of Southie, Danny tracks down his old girlfriend from the neighborhood, Marianne (Amanda Peet), finding that the love he left behind still remains. She tells how she heard about the gunfight he was in with Joey Ward (Jimmy Cummings) and wants to know if that's why he left town. Danny confesses that real reason he left town was that he needed to stop drinking if he were to become the man that she would want him to be.

Unable to find legitimate work and banned from union jobs due to a scuffle at a wedding, Danny becomes desperate for money. Two of his old pals know Danny needs money and offer him an opportunity to be a partner in an underground gambling club, though, they neglect to tell Danny that their silent partner is his old nemesis, Joey Ward. It doesn't take long before Danny finds out and he and Joey are face to face.

In Danny's absence from the neighborhood, Joey's father Butchie has declared war on Colie Powers and without knowing this Danny finds himself caught up in the middle of their war as it looks like he's in business with the Wards. The mob war eventually comes to Danny's front door, and the stress of an attempted murder in front of his house kills Danny's mother.

The film ends with Danny, Kathy, Marianne, Joey and even Colie Powers attending Mrs. Quinn's funeral as Powers tells Danny that he has decided to call a temporary truce in their war out of respect for Danny's later mother.