Paul Kersey, run out of New York by the police for taking the law into his own hands when his wife was brutally murdered and his daughter raped, finds more tragedy and violence in Los Angeles. On an outing with his still-recovering daughter and his friend, he is pushed around by a gang of punks and responds by chasing them. Angered they wait for him at home, murder his housekeeper, beat him up, and kidnap his daughter, raping her so brutally that she leaps to her death. He hunts down the killers one by one. When reports of his vigilante deeds come to New York, Inspector Frank Ochoa is once again recruited to stop the violence.