What became of the bootleggers after Prohibition? When the body of a federal dry agent missing since 1930 turns up sixteen years later, Los Angeles private detective Avery Shepard revisits the era of rum-runners and machine guns in an effort to clear the name of his late mentor Harry Price. The trail takes him to Las Vegas, where some former kingpins of the illicit liquor trade in Los Angeles, like Harry's ex-bootlegger Eddie Durance, hoped to reinvent themselves as legitimate businessmen. Eddie, now a successful casino operator, doesn't welcome Avery's inquiry and would prefer that the past remain buried. Is he behind the new wave of gangster violence plaguing postwar Los Angeles, or are old rivalries to blame? And will any of it lead back to Harry?