James “Mac” Maccari’s career in the mafia is at a standstill. As the best solider in his Capo’s crew, all he wants is to be noticed enough to get Made in the Pivetti Crime Family. But instead, his Capo’s interests seem more focused on keeping his solider hidden from the boss, and every other Made man he can. Seemingly stuck right where he is with no chance of going up, Mac doesn’t know what will finally get him the attention he needs to earn his button.

For Callie Moore, it’s a day-to-day struggle to live in a town where everyone thinks she’s the worst person on earth— thanks to rumors. Divorced, living with her ailing dad, and the scars of finding her ex-husband in bed with not one, but two, of her friends, have her on a downward spiral.

Maybe because they are young and innocent, cute black Valerie Davis and nerdy white Jeffrey Stark are late to realize that falling in love on Chicago’s South Side in 1963 is a highly risky business for an interracial couple. At first, they help each other out of tough racial fixes—he saves her from attack at an all-white amusement park and she saves him from injury in a racial brawl at their high school.

Violet Gallucci and Kazimir Markovic have grown up in the same city, but on opposite sides of the game they call life—Violet, an Italian principessa della mafia, and Kaz, a Russian Bratva heir. Lines have been drawn, and they know not to cross them.