The year is 1922. U.S. Prohibition is in full swing and the bootleg business is booming for Jewish-Canadian entrepreneurs, Saul and Lou Sugarman.Looking to keep a close eye on their border transactions, the Sugarman's set up their sister Rae and husband Max in a general store in southern Manitoba, close to the North Dakota border. One night, several hours after concluding a lucrative bootleg deal, Max Roter is found dead.Determined to find the killer, Lou Sugarman hires Sam Klein, Winnipeg's best known private detective, to investigate the murder. A routine investigation quickly devolves into a kidnapping crisis, leading Sam Klein straight into the dangerous mob world of 1920s New York City. The second trilogy in the Sam Klein mystery series transports readers back to the "gateway of the west," Winnipeg of the 1920s. It was a boom time for commerce and crooks, radicals and revolutionaries, as a brave new world opened up for waves of immigrants seeking a better life.