Cicero Grimes is a psychiatrist who gave up his career to give himself, body and soul, to drug rehabilitation in one of the worst areas of New Orleans, Bad City. His brother, Luther Grimes, is a veteran from Vietnam, where he distinguished himself for bravery and insanity, now based in Latin America, peddling drugs and selling his services to those who pay best. Cicero hates Luther, a fierce hatred, absolutely, that has dug a hole in the heart. The hate spawns from something that happened in their past, something that a corrupt and sadistic police captain, Clarence Jefferson, wants to know at any cost.
Callie, an apparently repented prostitute who is a patient of Cicero's, has helped Luther to rob a bank of her husband, and now is on the run with a million dollars. That booty is tempting to too many people and becomes the fuse of an explosion of violence that engulfs all the actors in this drama. Yet perhaps each of them would be willing to trade that sea of money for a shred of truth, a moment's peace, and escape the loneliness of Bad City.
