It's 1953 and life is good at Shady's, the Sweetwater brothers' fish camp, dancehall, and beer joint on Ransom Island. The biggest event in the island's history is coming up--an integrated dance featuring Duke Ellington. It's a daring idea for fifties-era Texas, and not everyone is happy about it. But soon interracial dancing becomes the least of the Sweetwaters' problems. Galveston mobsters track a runaway girl to Shady's and decide the offbeat island is the perfect place to diversify their illegal rackets ... and God help anyone who gets in their way. Suddenly, life on sleepy little Ransom Island becomes crowded, complicated--and very, very dangerous.