Prohibition has come to an end and bootlegger Frank "The King" Argos has also come to the end of his life. He asks Ness to be the executor of his estate. Ness declines, for obvious reasons. Argos has left everything to his son Charlie, who was declared missing in action at the very end of World War I. When his former minions (Arno Beale and Marcy Devon, played by Christopher Dark and Patricia Owens) find that life without Argos's money is not to their liking, they recruit and train someone to pose as the long-lost Charlie.

Mobster Victor Kurtz makes peace with his main rival for illegal liquor distribution in Chicago's South Side, Monk Lyselle. All goes well for several months until Eliot Ness and his men begin to intervene. They begin to hijack Kurtz' trucks and he automatically assumes that Lyselle has broken their agreement. Over the several months there was peace, Kurtz' main gunman, Holly Kester, has lost his nerve and Ness focuses on him as a possible way to put both Kurtz and Lyselle out of business.