Based upon De Felitta's original screenplay, "City Island" is the story of a Bronx prison deputy Vince Rizzo (Garcia) who recognizes a prisoner (Strait) as his grown child whom he sired with another woman twenty years earlier. He decides to be the young man's guardian in Rizzo's family's home, but his efforts to conceal the nature of his relationship to the young man promptly begin to unravel the complex web of deceits which have worn the family fabric threadbare through the years.
The title refers to the actual fishing village in the Bronx where the story is set.