Among the hard and fast rules in Joe Bernardi's life is this one: Do not, under any circumstances, travel east during the winter months. In this way one avoids dealing with snow. ice. sleet. frostbite and pneumonia. Unfortunately he has had to break this rule and having done so. is paying the price. His novel "A Family of Strangers" has been optioned for a major motion picture and he needs to fly east in January to meet with the talented director who has taken the option. Stuart Rosenberg. in the midst of directing "Murder. Inc," an expose of the 1930's gang of killers for hire. has insisted Joe write the screenplay and he needs several days to guide Joe in the right direction. Reluctantly Joe agrees. a decision which he will quickly rue when he finds himself up to his belly button with drug dealers. loan sharks. Mafia hit men. wannabe Broadway stars and an up and coming New York actor named Peter Falk who may be on the verge of stardom. Someone has beaten drug dealer Gino Finucci to death and left his body in the basement of The Mudhole. an off-off- Broadway theater which is home to Amythyst Breen. a one time darling of Broadway struggling to find her way back to the top and also Johnathon Harker. slimy and ambitious. an actor caught in the grip of drug addiction even as he struggles to get that one lucky break that will propel him to stardom. Even as Joe fights to remain above the fray. he can feel himself being inexorably drawn into the intrigue of underworld vendettas culminating in a face to face confrontation with Carlo Gambino. the boss of bosses. and the most powerful Mafia chieftain in New York Ciity.