What happens when idealists and visionaries confront dissemblers and criminals over control of a new economy? Idealists start a manufacturing venture in Buffalo, NY, building hybrid cars, just when the Democratic Party nominates a progressive as its can- didate for mayor. The crime family takes interest in new money in town at the very moment that a younger criminal crew, fresh out of prison, decides to unseat that established family and return Crime to the Street. The hero of this esteemed new novel is the son of the first member of that family to abandon the life of crime-hope and history merge in him.