As a child, Eddie Santiago grew up on the mean streets of his Puerto Rican neighbourhood in Chicago, where he witnessed his father's murder. Now in his thirties, after serving ten years in a state penitentiary, Eddie is coming home. With prison behind him, Eddie plans to seek refuge in Miami Beach. But new trouble begins when Eddie and his old friend/gangster Little Tony are pulled over by two cops, who rob Eddie of his money belt, which contains his life savings. Convinced it was a set-up, Eddie is determined to recover what is rightfully his all the while trying to reform his childhood friend. Along the way, Eddie falls for a Mexican beauty with a past she is trying to escape, gets dragged into a drug war, becomes a murder suspect, and is forced to participate in an ill-conceived casino heist

As a child, Eddie Santiago grew up on the mean streets of his Puerto Rican neighbourhood in Chicago, where he witnessed his father's murder. Now in his thirties, after serving ten years in a state penitentiary, Eddie is coming home. With prison behind him, Eddie plans to seek refuge in Miami Beach. But new trouble begins when Eddie and his old friend/gangster Little Tony are pulled over by two cops, who rob Eddie of his money belt, which contains his life savings. Convinced it was a set-up, Eddie is determined to recover what is rightfully his all the while trying to reform his childhood friend. Along the way, Eddie falls for a Mexican beauty with a past she is trying to escape, gets dragged into a drug war, becomes a murder suspect, and is forced to participate in an ill-conceived casino heist

Daniel Serrano was born and raised by his mother in the tough streets of New York and Chicago. The eldest of three boys, Serrano witnessed gangs, crime, drugs, poverty, and even murder, as his family lived the urban Latino struggle. After drifting through menial jobs for years, he enrolled in the Weekend Program at Shimer College and studied the classics.