Chris Flynn was an out-of-control teenager who spent time in a youth prison, but he’s kept his nose clean since then. He’s laying carpet one day when he finds $50,000 in cash under some floor­boards. He knows it’s trouble and leaves it there–but someone else takes it. Then the original owners reappear and kill one of Chris’s friends.

Pelecanos is known for both characters and plot, and examining how cir­cum­stances can lead flawed people to make decisions that cause events to spiral out of control. Chris and his father and his ex-con friends are all sharply drawn characters who struggle for redemption.