Story Overview

Set in 1920s New York, Once Upon a Time in America traces the early lives of David Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his close-knit group of friends, who grow up together in the city’s Jewish ghetto. Bound by loyalty and shared hardship, they slowly drift from petty crime into the deeper and more dangerous layers of the criminal underworld.

By the 1930s, David and his companions have become powerful figures within organized crime, shaping and exploiting the opportunities of Prohibition-era America. Wealth, ambition, and betrayal begin to fracture their bonds, and the friendships that once defined them gradually erode under the weight of greed and mistrust.

Decades later, in the late 1960s, David returns to New York after many years in exile. Haunted by memory and loss, he is forced to confront the consequences of his past choices, the betrayals that shattered his world, and the irreversible passage of time.

Structured as a sweeping meditation on memory, regret, and the illusion of the American Dream, Once Upon a Time in America is an epic reflection on friendship and the cost of ambition. Through its fractured chronology and melancholic tone, the film portrays how the past never truly fades—and how returning home can be the most painful journey of all.