Carney processes his dangerous situation, realizing that the man he met named Dwayne is actually the legendary criminal mastermind Uncle Rich. A flashback reveals Carney’s motivation: His wife, Elizabeth Carney, started her own travel agency but was repeatedly denied expansion loans, partly due to sexism. Needing money to help her, Carney bought a valuable necklace from a petty thief, Flinch Wilson. The deal turned out to be a test orchestrated by Dwayne, who then offered Carney more work. Two days later, Carney called the number Dwayne gave him, hoping that the additional income would help cover Elizabeth’s expenses, and eventually passed a sapphire to his associate Green. 

Back in the present, the armed intruders, Buzz Caldera and Orson, reveal that they have tracked the sapphire, which they claim Uncle Rich stole from Buzz years ago. They coerce Carney into setting a trap, instructing him to display an Egon Furniture Authorized Dealer plaque in his store window so that that Uncle Rich will call him, after which Carney is to arrange a meeting at a restaurant called Manny’s, with threats of severe violence if he fails to comply by midnight.

Carney and Green realize that their recent handling of the sapphire brought this trouble on them. Shaken by the attack and his yearning for a normal life, Green appears ready to leave the criminal world behind. With his own family safely out of town, Carney leaves and reflects on the danger now threatening his life. Because the plaque signal that he described to Buzz was a ruse, Carney instead calls the number for Betty’s Beauty Salon and uses their coded exchange to contact Uncle Rich. He’s led along a circuitous route to a townhouse where a criminal crew is actively planning a large job. There, Carney finds Dwayne, now knowing him to be the legendary Uncle Rich, a figure long presumed dead, and warns him that men are on his trail.

Carney sits with Uncle Rich at a run-down townhouse hideout. Rich explains that he faked his death years ago to escape Harlem’s criminal scene after becoming too notorious. Using the muskrat as a metaphor for doing the work without needing credit, Rich recounts the story of a major heist he planned for the Amici Sapphires. He partnered with a ruthless white criminal named Buzz Caldera, but in a moment of hubris, Rich revealed his true identity. Buzz then double-crossed him, executing the job a week early and cutting him out. In retaliation, Rich found Buzz’s stash hidden under the floorboards of a Laurel Canyon ranch house and took the sapphires along with gold doubloons, uncut diamonds, cash, and bearer bonds. Rich has kept scarce because Buzz has been hunting him ever since. He tells Carney that he has returned for six scores in six months before retiring. As he begins to tell Carney that New York is his second stop, gunfire erupts in the building.

The narrative backtracks to reveal that two of Buzz’s men, Fenton and Benedetto, followed Carney from Green’s office to Harlem. The men eventually traced him to Uncle Rich’s headquarters and alerted Buzz, who came to the scene himself. Gunfire erupts at the townhouse, and Uncle Rich orders his associate Rita to get Carney out of the firefight. Rita leads Carney along a prepared escape route through adjoining backyards, but they’re ambushed by Fenton. After a struggle in which Carney moves to intervene with a dumbbell, a gunshot wounds Fenton. Rita kicks him, takes his gun, and sends Carney onward.

Carney escapes and returns home, only to discover that his house is now under surveillance by Buzz’s crew. While sitting in the dark, he considers leaving the city and reflects on how he became involved in the situation. He had justified taking Flinch’s necklace as a way to help Elizabeth financially. Now, Carney admits that he already had enough money to cover her expenses and became involved because he wanted to. He recognizes his own attraction to the chaos of criminal life and then leaves his house through the back alley, goes to a pay phone, and calls Betty’s Beauty Salon again.

Carney accompanies Uncle Rich on a heist at a New Jersey warehouse complex. They meet up with siblings Rita and Jeff, and Jeff disables security at TCN Microtronics. Using forklifts, the crew steals two large six-foot cable reels, a score that Rich calls a “money job.” 

Earlier that day, Carney had met with Rich at Grand Central Terminal, and Rich explained his plan to complete six final jobs before retiring. He revealed the existence of a secret train spur, Track 61, connecting the station to the Waldorf Astoria hotel. He explained that his next target is one of Jesse Owens’s gold medals from a sports memorabilia auction at the hotel, a heist that he considers a personal mission to right a historical injustice. 

Reflecting on the “void” in his own successful life, Carney acknowledges his responsibility for choosing to participate in criminal work. After the warehouse job is complete, Carney officially agrees to join Rich’s crew for the Waldorf heist.

The crew gathers at their new hideout, a shuttered bar. After handing off the stolen truck, Carney learns that its contents were valuable coaxial cables. Fearing that their captured accomplice, Barclay, will talk, Uncle Rich decides to move up their next job—the heist at the Waldorf Hotel—to the following night. Carney replaces the injured Cliff on the team. The plan is to steal one of Jesse Owens’s gold medals from the 1936 Berlin Olympics from a safe inside a watch store at the hotel, accessing it through the Grand Central train shed. However, the job is now complicated by a wedding that will bring Secret Service agents to the hotel. Rich explains that his motive is to “undo an injustice” (81). Feeling out of place, Carney firmly decides to quit the job and go home. However, as he heads to the back room, he discovers a stunningly beautiful coffee table. Viewing its discovery as a sign that “all [i]s within reach” (96), Carney becomes intent on acquiring the table.

Carney and Jeff, disguised as transit workers, successfully infiltrate Grand Central Station. They navigate past police officers and through a train shed inhabited by a large squatter community to reach Track 61 and the Waldorf Astoria’s private elevator. Inside, they meet Rita and Uncle Rich in a hidden elevator machine room where the crew has been quietly drilling through a concrete wall. After Jeff breaks through with a sledgehammer, Rich leaves to meet them later. Carney, Rita, and Jeff then crawl through the hole into a boutique, cut through another wall into the Maximillian watch store, and disable the alarms. Jeff uses a modified oscilloscope to manipulate the safe’s lock. They ignore other valuables, retrieving only their target: one of Jesse Owens’s 1936 Berlin Olympic gold medals. Meanwhile, after visiting a diner for a final nostalgic meal, Rich is ambushed by Buzz and his men while returning through the train shed. The rest of the crew packs up and heads back toward Track 61. When they open the door, they see something waiting for them.

On the abandoned Waldorf platform, Buzz and his men ambush Carney’s crew, revealing that they learned the location from Barclay, whom they captured and killed. Dissatisfied with finding only Jesse Owens’s Olympic medal, Buzz demands to know where Uncle Rich has hidden the rest of his loot and threatens Carney and the others. Just in time, a group of underground dwellers including “Mayor Crotch,” an ally of Rich, emerges from the darkness and attacks. In the chaotic fight that follows, Buzz’s man Orson is dragged off the platform, and Jeff shoots Benedetto multiple times; Benedetto goes still and doesn’t stir. A wounded Buzz escapes into the tunnels.

As Carney and Rich flee, Buzz ambushes them again. Carney creates a bizarre diversion by talking about a coffee table, giving Rich the opportunity to shoot Buzz twice, killing him. They escape through an access grate to a midtown street. After a final look at the medal, Carney tells Rich that he’s done. They part ways, and Carney never sees him again.