As Algy Temple, the deft pool player, sleuth and Ivy League university lawyer, investigates the suspicious death of a retired professor, it coincides with his involvement in a high stakes pool tournament in Providence, where old world shadows hang heavily in the air. Unexpectedly, he finds himself on a path that leads him to Rome and the Boot of Italy where he confronts the dreaded 'Ndrangheta crime family and discovers a past haunted by vendetta and conspiracy. Mobsters and shylocks, a Ponzi scheme, an outraged Italo-American community locked in a culture war with the University, a pool hustler's last gambit for recognition, and his fiancé's, the sassy and beautiful Nadie Winokur, focus on their upcoming wedding add complexity to the suspenseful tension. Algy picks his way through dark alleys of moral corruption and the murky world of big time pool where the match becomes a wager of life and death.