In the first week of the new decade, an emergency phone call shatters Chicago private detective Smokey Dalton's hope for a good 1970. His adopted son Jimmy and his cousin Keith need help. Smokey arrives at a South Side hotel across from the boys' school in time to clean up a horrible mess, on the boys mostly solve on their own. But the boys' heroic actions echo all across Chicago. Smokey finds himself standing alone against street gangs, the mob, and the Democratic Machine.