In August 2005, within the confines of a small, dimly-lit cell, Dalton Russell declares he has orchestrated the perfect bank robbery. In Manhattan, New York City, a group of masked robbers dressed in painter coveralls, all adopting variations of the name "Steve" as their aliases, seize control of a bank. They take both employees and patrons hostage, dividing them into separate groups and confining them to different rooms. To confuse identification, the hostages are forced to wear masks and coveralls identical to those of the robbers, with their locations frequently shuffled. The robbers subtly mix themselves among the hostages at times and take shifts breaking through the floor in one of the bank's storage rooms.