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1-Page Summary of The Godfather
Overall Summary
A man watches a judge give two criminals a light sentence for beating up his daughter. He goes to Don Corleone and asks him to seek true justice for what happened. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, actor Johnny Fontane hits his wife because she’s cheating on him, but he doesn’t want to hurt her face. His career is failing and he wants help from the Godfather. A baker in New York needs help with getting an employee out of deportation so he goes to Don Corleone as well.
It is August 1945. The Godfather, Don Vito Corleone, the Sicilian-American boss of the Corleone Family and one of the Mafia’s Five Families that dominate organized crime in New York City, is hosting his daughter Connie’s wedding at his lavish Long Beach home. His sons are also present for this special occasion. Sonny Corleone sneaks off to have sex with Lucy Mancini while Fredo Corleone dutifully mingles with guests. Michael Corleone sits with Kay Adams, a non-Italian woman whom he loves but who doesn’t know about his criminal activities as a member of the mafia family. He has amassed great wealth and power through control over criminal rackets such as gambling and extortion by making people pay him tribute just like they would their godfathers in Sicily where he was born. He helps Bonasera deal with problems that arose from an incident involving his daughter when she was beaten up by men after being caught kissing her boyfriend against her father’s wishes on Valentine’s Day at school which led to rumors spreading about her chastity or worse yet some sort of impropriety between them which spread like wildfire among students until she had no choice but to leave school because everyone hated her so much even though it wasn’t true at all.
The Don meets with Genco, who is on his deathbed. After Genco passes away, the Don chooses Tom Hagen as his new consigliere. The Don then sends Tom to convince Jack Woltz to cast Fontane in a movie role he was initially denied. Woltz refuses because Fontane stole his girlfriend and so the Don’s men beat up both of them in retaliation. As a result, Woltz gives Fontane the part that he had originally been denied for after being threatened by the mob boss. The caporegime also helps Enzo avoid deportation when Nazorine asks him for help.
After Connie’s wedding, Don Corleone meets with Virgil Sollozzo who is a heroin dealer allied with the Tatagglia family. The Turk offers to make the Corleones rich if they’ll protect his drug distribution ring from police interference. However, because drugs are a “dirty business,” and would scare off political allies, Don Corleone refuses to get involved. He sends Luca Brasi out to spy on The Turk but he is murdered by him in a nightclub. Meanwhile, Michael and Kay go out for dinner in New York City when Michael sees that his father has been shot on the front page of a newspaper. Spurned by Don Corleone’s refusal to join his drug operation, Sollozzo pays Paulie Gatto (Don Corleone’s bodyguard) $50K to betray him. Then he sends assassins after Don Corleone but they fail miserably at killing their target since Sonny takes over as acting don while Vito recovers from being shot in an assassination attempt himself. After recovering from being shot twice himself during an assassination attempt, Vito decides that it’s time for war against The Turk and orders Tom Hagen (his adopted son) to negotiate peace terms with Sollozzo or else he will be killed along with everyone close to him including Kay Adams-Corleone whom Michael loves dearly so much so that she might even become Mrs. Pacino someday!
Sollozzo then tries to kill Don Corleone in his hospital room. Michael stops the attack by bringing more guards for his father. Clemenza and Rocco Lampone, a soldier working with him, kill Paulie Gatto who had been helping Sollozzo’s plan. Michael has a meeting with McCluskey and Sollozzo that he uses to get the gun from the bathroom of the restaurant they’re at. He kills them both, but flees Sicily because he is accused of murder.
