In April of 1976 handsome Tony Gable comes to New Orleans for the reading of the will of his father's deceased sister, Madeline Benedetti. At stake is a multi-million dollar estate in Devil's Swamp in rural Hancock County, Mississippi, near the coastal town of Bay St. Louis. Attending the meeting are the Godfather from New York and mob bosses from several major cities. The Godfather asks the local mob boss, Juan Bartolli, if it would be alright for Tony to stay in the area and possibly be shown around Bartolli's operation. Bartolli agrees and arranges for his associates to have Tony present when some of his operation’s illegal activities take place. One of those associates is the sheriff of Hancock County, Raymond Ducet, who drives Tony several miles south of New Orleans to view Bartolli's estate, where some of the gang's more serious problems are dealt with. During a meeting with Bartolli, Tony is told to try to befriend Hancock County Deputy Sheriff Mark Patterson, who has been responsible for recent drug shipment seizures that have cost the Bartolli gang over one million dollars. While attempting to get to know him, Tony meets Patterson's girlfriend, the beautiful Karen Thompson, and three of her friends at the Baked Tomato, a local bar and nightclub near the waterfront in Bay St. Louis. He is gradually exposed to more of the organization's shipping operations in the area, including the utilization of an off-shore drilling rig as a storage and transfer point and the use of pastureland as a landing zone. Tony is present when Bartolli and his gang have a shoot-out with a group that has stolen one of the gang’s shipments. Bartolli's actions and plans cause Tony to question his association with the gang. Made aware of an upcoming attempt on someone’s life, he is forced to make a determination concerning courses of action that he might take. His decision leads to things happening that are totally unexpected.