1971 - Trash is piled on the streets; crime is at a record high; and the city is careening towards bankruptcy. A shooting war has broken out between the NYPD and the Black Liberation Army. Ray Carney; furniture-store owner and ex fence; is trying to keep his head down; his business up; and his life on the straight and narrow. His only immediate need is Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter May; so what harm could it do to hit up Munson; his old police contact and fixer extraordinaire? And suddenly; staying out of the game becomes more complicated - and deadly. When one of Ray's tenants is badly injured in a fire; he enlists the enduringly violent Pepper to look into how it started; leading the duo to battle their way through a crumbling metropolis run by the shady; the violent and the utterly corrupt.