Crime Magazine reporter Jeff Dillon (TF) is back in his old neighborhood in New York's ""Little Italy"", Dillon hopes to take a break from his hectic responsibilities and recapture ""something real"" from his younger days. Unfortunately, he is bombarded by pain and disillusionment from every side: his stepmother is gravely ill, and her son is deeply involved with drug dealing.
An ex-convict Eddie Gannon, who holds the lease on a converted church used as a halfway house for recently released prisoners,is endangered by a rash of unsolved crimes in the neighborhood. Gannon asks Crime magazine editor Dan Farrell (RS) to prove that none of his fellow ex-cons are responsible for the thefts.