In the town of Wasseypur, a town in Bengal in the 1940s controlled by a family known as the Qureshi's a man named Shahid Khan begins robbing trains using the name of the Qureshi's famed ancestor, Sultana, after being forced to leave the village by the Qureshi leader he goes to the nearby city of Dhanbad.
After a series of events, Shahid becomes an enforcer for a powerful Coal owner named Ramadhir Singh, who upon discovering a plot by Shahid to kill him has him assassinated. His son, Sardar, and his brother-in-law, Nasir, manage to escape.
Sardar, finding out about his father's fate, swears revenge and as he returns to Wasseypur to take revenge he reignites a battle with the ruthless Sultan Qureshi leading to a generation-spanning battle between the gangs of Wasseypur.