The Dark Knight's First Night

Biography
Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City after eight years away from Gotham while Lieutenant James Gordon gets assigned to work with Lieutenant Arnold Flass. Both are swiftly acquainted with the corruption and violence of Gotham City, with Gordon witnessing his partner Detective Arnold Flass assaulting a teen for fun.

Bruce meets Andrea in a cemetery while visiting his parents' grave. That night, in one of his first crime-fighting attempts, Bruce foils an armored car robbery while disguised in a black ski-mask and leather jacket. Though he succeeds, he is discouraged that the criminals did not fear him. Around the same time, he begins a romance with Andrea. Eventually, Bruce decides to abandon his plan to become a crime-fighting vigilanteand proposes marriage to Andrea. Soon afterward, however, Andrea mysteriously leaves Gotham with her father, Carl Beaumont, ending her engagement to Bruce in a Dear John letter. Believing that he has lost his last chance of having a normal life, Bruce dons the mask of Batman for the first time.

Gordon works to rid corruption from the force, but on orders from Commissioner Loeb, several officers attack him, including Flass, who threatens Gordon’s girlfriend Barbara Kean. Gordon tracks Flass down, beats him up, and leaves him naked and handcuffed in the snow.

As Gordon becomes a minor celebrity for his bravery on the job, Batman strikes for the first time, attacking a group of thieves. Batman soon works up the ladder, even attacking Flass while he was accepting a bribe. After Batman interrupts a dinner party attended by many of Gotham’s corrupt politicians and crime bosses, including Carmine "The Roman" Falcone, Loeb orders Gordon's superior Captain Sarah Essen to bring him in by any means necessary.

As Gordon tries in vain to catch him, Batman attacks Falcone, stripping him naked and tying him up in his bed after dumping his car in the river. Harvey Dent becomes Batman’s first ally.

Captain Sarah Essen suggests Wayne as a Batman suspect and she and Gordon witness Batman save an old woman from a runaway truck. Essen holds Batman at gunpoint, but Batman disarms her and flees to an abandoned building. Loeb fraudulently orders a bomb dropped on it, forcing Batman into the fortified basement. A SWAT team is sent in, led by trigger-happy Sergeant Branden, whom Batman attempts to trap in the basement. Branden manages to climb out of the trap through a collapsed chimney, and joins in the gun battle. Enraged as the team’s careless gunfire injures several people outside, Batman beats the team into submission. Using a device to attract the bats of his cave, Batman escapes amid the chaos.

Gordon has a brief affair with Essen, while Batman intimidates a drug dealer for information. The dealer goes to Gordon to testify against Flass, who is brought up on charges. Loeb blackmails Gordon with proof of his affair against pressing charges. After taking Barbara with him to investigate Wayne's connection to Batman, Gordon confesses the affair to her.

Meanwhile, Falcone gets attacked by his lieutenant Fish Mooney and is about to be killed by Penguin until Batman and Gordon get them away from Mooney's men and to a safe house where they get captured. Fish Mooney's boss Pino Maroni acts disrespectful towards her leading her to shoot him in the head. Maroni's men and Mooney's gang start fighting while Gordon, Batman, Falcone, and Cobblepot break free, Cobblepot arrives with a machine gun and chases Mooney while Gordon and Bullock escape with Falcone. Cobblepot, Mooney and Butch run to the roof where a fight ensues that results in Mooney falling off the roof into the water below. During this time, Barbara tries to kill Essen, forcing her to neutralize her in self defense just as Gordon, Batman, and Falcone arrive.

Falcone convinces Gordon to work with Batman after seeing how Gotham needs them both and decides to retire after giving them evidence against Loeb. Essen decides to quit her role as captain and promotes Gordon to her position. When a criminal who "calls himself the Joker" threatens to poison the city's reservoir, Gordon summons Batman with the Bat-Signal and waits on a rooftop for the Dark Knight to arrive.