New York, 1929, a city of speakeasies, swells and hoodlums at the fag end of the roaring twenties. It's a hell of a time and place for a young cop to be trying to make his way in the world. Joe Quinn has been given a shot at the NYPD's main headquarters squad and his first case is one that could put his name up in lights; a banker flops onto Wall Street and all the signs point to murder. Pretty soon, the dead man is not alone; a group of old buddies is being eliminated, in a particularly gruesome manner. The men have connections to Lucky Luciano and the other denizens of organised crime. Their leader, whose true identity remains a closely guarded secret, is known simply as 'the bag man,' once the name given to a top cop on the take. The days of such naked corruption are supposed to be over, but nothing in prohibition era Manhattan is that simple. For Joe Quinn a case that starts as an opportunity swiftly becomes a nightmare from which there is no escape. The path seems to lead inexorably towards his own father, once New York's foremost celebrity cop.