When Sammy Borzano, about to take the big leap off the roof of Bellevue Hospital, asks private investigator Eddie Lombardi to right an old wrong committed by his late brother Tommy, Eddie reluctantly agrees. The task is to find and return a jewel-encrusted crown that came to a church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, all the way from the Vatican.

Unfortunately, that task puts him at odds with John Bologna, aka Johnny Baloney, Mafia kingpin Jimmy Santini's latest underboss. Johnny Baloney's advice is clear enough: mind your own business and stay healthy. But Eddie doesn't have a healthy choice this time. Things get worse before they get better, and as he tries to break in his new junior partner, former chicken-thief Arnie Pulaski, he finds himself in a spot that could get them both killed.