Walter will do anything to help his mother when she's diagnosed with tuberculosis, but does that include standing up to Al Capone? Twelve-year-old Walter wants to spend the summer of 1927 watching his beloved Chicago Cubs play baseball. Instead, his life is upended when his mother is diagnosed with tuberculosis. Walter must leave everything he knows and loves to accompany his mother to Albuquerque, New Mexico―a place he has never been to live with relatives he has never met. To help with expenses, Walter gets a paper route. But the situation gets worse when his mother is admitted to a sanatorium and needs expensive surgery. A chance encounter with the gangster, Al "Scarface" Capone might change his mother's fortunes, and get her the surgery his mother needs. But to do it, Walter will become indebted to the notorious gangster.