The unsolved murder of Fred Morelli, in Utica, New York, in 1947, comes to the fore more than 60 years later when 15-year-old Angel, hacker extraordinaire, has his guitar smashed by Victor Bocca, one of the original suspects in the murder. Angel hacks files that may point not only to Bocca's involvement but also that of the mob. From there, mayhem breaks loose as assassins descend on Utica to silence Angel. In the midst of it is Angel's adoptive father, Eliot Conte, who, along with his close friend Police Chief Antonio Robinson, must try to unravel the mystery of what is going on before more killings take place, including that of Angel himself.

After ground-breaking work as a scholar and literary critic, Frank Lentricchia changed his focus to fiction in the 1980s. Since then he has written a number of novels exploring the complexities of ethnic and artistic identity, mostly set in his home town of Utica, New York, where he was born to working-class parents.