A South Alabama "black belt" county is the central location in a triangle of crime with the Chicago Mafia and a Mexican drug cartel. In this rural environment, extensive character development explores life of the residents as they experience the apathy, despair, poverty and inequality inherent in their surroundings. As the story unfolds, the reader encounters drugs, abortion, homosexuality, religion, political corruption, welfare fraud and race relations. Linda Gail Flores and her childhood best friend, Chris Robinson, share issues of racial identify and prospects for their future. Linda Gail struggles with the sudden death of her mother followed by contact from her Mexican father she had been told was dead. Frank Musso, a tough New York Italian transplanted in Chicago, is selected by the Chicago mafia, known as the "Outfit", to move to Johnson County. Frank soon learns that a campaign contribution can buy favors from the Alabama Governor, and that local politicians from poor backgrounds can be easy subjects of bribery. Robert Lee Ezell shields his incompetence as a lawyer by using advertising, and while successful in making money, his propensity to use cocaine and gamble at the Biloxi casinos is his downfall. Ned Forrest owns the popular Farmland restaurant/bar which caters to fun lovers, and moves among patrons looking for sexual relations while devising a scheme to have sex with college girls. Mary Henderson, from a wealthy Johnson County family, forms a friendship with Linda Gail and becomes her business partner in an Art Shop. Initially heterosexual, but inclined toward homosexuality, Mary uses her money to form a lesbian relationship with a college art student trying to rise above her background in Johnson County. Dr. Elbert Adams is a medical doctor with strong belief that his duty is to serve all without regard to payment for his services. His wife, Elise, has no sympathy for those in need, with her interest being in her own social standing and funct