For fifteen years the New York Local has been the influential alternative newspaper its founder, John Scanlon, wanted it to be. The staff believed Manhattan was the center of the universe and it was their aim to keep it there. But when a decaying hotel on lower Broadway collapses on a warm Friday evening in August 1973 something is wrong. The Broadway Central, a last resort for some of the city's poorest residents, is a few minutes walk from the paper's press room but they miss the story. For Rush Fletcher, longtime reporter and columnist for the weekly Local, this neglect is personal. Journalism is all he's ever cared about and the Local is his home. He doesn't make much money but he can write what he wants. Now his instincts tell him they are not doing their job. When a young girl's body is found in the ruins of the hotel he wants more answers, about her and about the newspaper he loves.