In 1964, a Catholic school nun questions a priest’s ambiguous relationship with a troubled young student, suspecting him of abuse.

In the year 1935, a teen named Billy Bathgate finds first love while becoming the protégé of fledgling gangster Dutch Schultz.

A gallery of characters in Brooklyn in the 1950s are crushed by their surroundings and selves: a union strike leader discovers he is gay; a prostitute falls in love with…