Headed by Rodrigo Borgia, better known as Pope Alexander VI, this tight-knit family is fighting to keep its iron grip on Italy - but theirs is a lethal game, and the cost of failure is surely death.
Scheming and plotting for their own ends are his children: Giovanni, the much-favoured golden boy;
For Vito Corleone, nothing is more important than his family's future. His youngest children, Michael, Fredo, and Connie, are in school, unaware of their father's true occupation. His adopted son, Tom Hagen, is a college student; but he worries most about Sonny, his oldest child.
Bendini, Lambert and Locke were a small, well-respected firm, but their offer exceeded Mitch's wildest expectations: a fantastic salary, a new home, and the keys to a brand new BMW.
Except for the mysterious deaths of previous lawyers with the firm.
Sonny Corleone is an old hand, while World War II veteran Michael Corleone is unused to the world of crime and reluctant to plunge into the business.
Both the police and ruthless rival crime lords scent blood in the water.
It is 1963 in New York, and things have never been better for the Corleones. Outside the fortified building owned by Michael Corleone, newly undisputed Boss of Bosses, a parade of people - among them former mob rivals and an emissary from the Mayor of New York - wait to ask the great man for favours.
Only one thing remains to be done.