His father humiliated, a teenage boy vows bloody revenge.

Every sports fan in New York knows Al Judge, the hard-bitten reporter whose column is the scourge of gamblers, gangsters, and corrupt players across the city. Sixteen-year-old George LaMain is Judge's biggest fan - right up until the night he decides the writer has to die. George is in his father's saloon, waiting for his dad to give him his birthday present: a trip to the fights at Madison Square Garden. They are about to leave when Judge demands George's father strip and lie down on the barroom floor. George doesn't know why, but his old man does it - and Judge beats him senseless in front of the whole bar.

When he's finished crying, George takes his father's gun and sets out into the night. To avenge his disgraced father, he plans to gun Al Judge down. But before he can become a killer, this birthday boy will have to grow into a man.