It’s 1930 and Mick Daugherty has a presence in Indianapolis that has earned him the sobriquet The Booze King. But even the Booze King is not immune to the ravages of the Depression. Daugherty Construction, his one legitimate business is failing.
The Daugherty Gang show up one fine spring evening to take over Sugar Creek Speedway, a track so nefarious it has come to be called the Devil’s track. The terms are simple. Hand over fifteen percent of all bets to the Daugherty Gang. It cleans up betting, eliminates rivalry between different factions. Not everyone is going to take to Mick Daugherty’s terms. He quickly makes an enemy of German mechanic Karl Reinhardt whom everyone knows only as “the Vulf”, a lupine moniker he has earned from rapacious violence.
Mick’s sometimes rival, sometimes ally Giovanni Moretti is dying. He warns Mick that his position as top gangster in Indy is about to be challenged by Moretti’s own son, Marco, who is only waiting for his father to die.
With Moretti’s death a reckoning comes that is about to change the balance of power in the Hoosier city. With Vulf challenging his authority, Mick has only a tenuous hold on the racetrack in rural Brown County, and an even more tenuous one in the city itself. On top of that, Mick’s estranged brother Brendan shows up, this time having proved himself in the racing circuit.
The stakes increase when the Moretti takes the war to Mick’s door and the cost is a young man whose Italian immigrant family had placed their trust and hope in him. Things escalate quickly and soon he finds himself in an all-out feud with Marco Moretti that threatens to topple everything he has built.
Death stalks Mick, as he loses those who mean everything to him. He must face some shadows in his past, even as his beloved Lilly reveals some of her own to him.
Once again, Mick must face betrayal from those closest to him. It forces his hand to take up violence against those who have ranged against him. And as it unravels, he faces retribution from an old enemy who sets the Bureau of Prohibition on him. Mick faces utter destruction, unless he plays one last Ace card. And what comes of it may surprise Mick as much as anyone.