The novel and Part I established the metaphor that criminal society is analogous to normal or legitimate society. The point of the metaphor was to offer a critique of normal society, not for its resemblance to criminal society but for its departures from the more natural norms that govern the Gemeinschaft of the criminal family. Now, in Part II, the new development is that the family is itself becoming part of the normal society and thereby is being corrupted.
— Samuel Francis (Chronicles)
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.