The Roaring Twenties crumble into the Great Depression. Bootlegging is flourishing. Virginia Kingsley, New York's most successful speakeasy owner, is queen of that castle. Rudy Strauss wants to help with her business. Virginia, wisely suspicious, refuses. He shifts his trademark toothpicks to the other side of his mouth and asks about her niece, Laura, and Laura's nineteen-month-old son, Todd. Virginia warns him off, but Rudy is intrigued. Laura is movie star beautiful but it is her ex-husband, Phillip, who is an actor. Laura, a writer, is devastated when Todd's nanny calls, hysterical, saying Laura's son has been kidnapped.