When a bar crowd turns into a murderous, racist mob, Kevin Shea tries to do the right thing. He fails, and an innocent black lawyer is lynched. The next day, TV pictures show Shea apparently trying to hang the lawyer and Shea suddenly finds himself a hunted, hated man.

Dismas Hardy is an ex-cop and bartender at the Little Shamrock, owned by his friend Moses McGuire. When Moses asks him to investigate the alleged suicide of his brother-in-law, Eddie Cochran, Dismas obliges. Though Dismas's probing suggests that Eddie was involved in a drug deal, he begins to uncover a dangerous entanglement much closer to home.