This book is a historical drama beginning in Liverpool in 1911. It follows the lives of three children, Dave, 16, Sam, 14 and Mary Anne, aged 6. When Dave accidentally kills a man in self-defence while trying to steal a few bottles of whisky to sell for food, he is terrified of the consequences of his actions. He knows the friends of the man he killed will find him.
Badly injured after having his face slashed with a broken bottle, Dave was further traumatized when on arriving home he finds his mother dead. When he and Sam found the cache of guinea coins she secreted away for them, they knew they could get away. They chose America.
Gradually from small beginnings as bookies runners, they drift into a life of crime. With the introduction of prohibition, Sam and Dave become rumrunners and when with the help of a ship's captain and Albert Rothwell one of the richest men in America they acquire a distillery, their fortunes are made.
Their lives follow a path of revenge when Suzy, Sam's wife is murdered. But when Dave meets up with his past, life for the brother's take a horrific turn.