It is 1955 in Las Vegas and the Chicago mob man Mo Weiner is bankrolling ex-boxer Worthless Worthington Lee and the city''s first all-black hotel-casino. The Ivory Coast is rising up from the dust on the wrong side of town. And out of the shadows steps Deacon a white horn player with a dark past and a genius for jazz. Mo mistakes him for a hitman. Worthless takes him for a friend. Anita the mixed-race beauty he falls for wants him for herself. And Haney the corrupt and racist cop who runs this hot desert oasis of sin and sand wants him rubbed out.