Early November, 1958, New York City

Art thief and smuggler Cantor Gold's latest underworld caper begins when she arrives at big-time bookie Nick Fortunato's apartment to celebrate his birthday, a ritual the two friends have enjoyed for years. But Nick is missing, and there's blood on the living room carpet. It's not Nick's blood, though. Nick's death still awaits him. Despite crime lord Sig Loreale's best plans to protect Nick, with whom Sig has financial dealings, a killer finds Nick hidden away in a cheap hotel owned by Loreale.

Among the players in this tale of friendship, betrayal, and the competition for power between the young and the aging, is the beautiful and possibly deadly Abbey O'Brien. She was Nick's right hand in his bookie operation, and now that he's dead, she stands to either gain big or lose even bigger. The operatives and bettors in Nick's bookmaking business have a stake in Nick's death, too . . . and motives to either solve his murder or get him out of the way. Assisting Cantor, as always, are her young Guy Friday Judson Zane; cabbie, sometime getaway driver, and sometime friend with benefits Rosie Bliss; and Cantor's criminal mentor Esther "Mom" Sheinbaum. And always circling are the cops.