Nick Daniels, intrepid reporter and writer for the Calumet News Service, returns to complete the investigations into the murders of his friend and three of his foes that occurred two years before during five days and nights of bloody chaos on Chicago's southeast side. A City Council subcommittee hearing reveals answers to questions Nick had been trying to discover on his own, surrounding the murders.
On the domestic front, Nick and the love of his life, Erlynda Sanchez, have reached the four year pinnacle of their live-in relationship. Lynn, after resigning from her brother-in-law's 10th Ward office where she was Alderman Antonio J. Coronado's chief of staff, landed the plumb job of executive secretary to the city's Cultural Arts Commissioner. A political appointee, the commissioner leans heavily on Lynn for her expertise and advice in all things Chicago.
Angel Sosa, the illegitimate son of Nick's nemesis, Joey Miller, appears to have become a thorn in the side of mysterious Chicagoland crime boss, Mr. Black. It seems men in power have little tolerance for even the smallest of inconveniences, as the hiding-in-plain-sight Sosa has become to Black and his minions. Illegitimate or not, young Angel poses a threat to Black's continued dominance as the Boss of Bosses.
The subcommittee hearing also inadvertently reveals that Nick has been keeping secrets from his own editor, Larry Galica who, as a sort of punishment, reassigns Nick to cover the week-long filming of the major motion picture, Luna, to take place in his own neighborhood. Nick's confidant with the Chicago Police force, Lieutenant Vic Hanley also has some explaining to do to his lame duck mayor when it is revealed by the hearing that Joey Miller, another lifelong southeast sider, while using the 10th Ward offices as his personal plaything and secretly connected to Mr. Black and his organization, was working undercover for the FBI!
