Don Corleone, the ageing patriarch of an organised crime dynasty, transfers control of his formidable empire to his reluctant son.
Michael Corleone ruthlessly expands the family's criminal empire amid flashbacks of his father Vito's rise from Sicilian orphan to New York godfather.
In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in New York City and Italy in 1979, aging Mafia Don Michael Corleone seeks to avow for his sins, while taking his nephew Vincent Mancini under his wing.