Once a member of New Orleans regular police force, Francis Muldoon now works for the District's vice-lord. His job is to see that the District's volatile mix of sex, alcohol, and gambling doesn't boil over but instead rolls along at a continuous simmer. He patrols his patron's honkytonks, saloons and whorehouses, both the high priced bordellos and the coffinlike cribs where the girls work with only a cot and a washbasin. But, when drawn into a contentious rivalry over the affections of Adele, a beautiful singer, a fatal shoot-out is the inevitable conclusion sending the District into a scalding eruption and leaving him to restore the integrity of his soul.