Under a new identity, Paul Kersey returns to New York City, seven long years after the events of Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987), to attend the glamorous fashion show of his fiancée, Olivia Regent. However, Olivia's criminal former husband, Tommy O'Shea, has other plans in store for her, and after a deadly confrontation, Paul finds himself back to square one. Now, once more, with the police unable, or unwilling, to get to the bottom of this bloody case, it is up to Kersey, the grizzled messenger of death, and his snub-nosed, .357 Magnum Smith and Wesson Model 66 revolver, to right a wrong, and see to it that justice is served. Is there an escape from Kersey, and the face of death?