In the slum neighborhood of Five Points, Manhattan in 1846, two gangs have engaged in a final battle (or "challenge") in Paradise Square over "who holds sway over the Five Points"; these two factions participating in this event are the nativism (politics), Protestantism Natives led by William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting, and a Irish Catholic, the "Dead Rabbits", led by "Priest" Vallon. At the end of this battle, Bill kills Vallon and declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed. Having witnessed this, Vallon's young son hides the knife that killed his father and is taken to an orphanage on Roosevelt Island.