When a prominent businessman-mob leader in Chinatown is assassinated by a member of a Chinese youth gang, Vietnam vet and highly decorated cop Stanley White (Mickey Rourke) is assigned to Chinatown and ordered to clean up the gang problem. White soon realizes that the teenage hoodlums are under the control of an ambitious young crime boss, Joey Tai (John Lone). Enlisting the help of pretty young Chinese-American television reporter Tracy Tzu (Ariane), White becomes obsessed with destroying Tai. Prone to breaking rules and unlikely to make compromises, White goes after his target, vowing to spare nothing and nobody, including himself.