A bold, brilliant tale of mystery, revenge, and survival in the 1980s,
when cocaine and money ruled the city streets and even the good guys
wanted a piece of the action. It's March madness and the college boys
are playing basketball on TV. But on the streets of D.C., the homeboys
are dealing, dissing, dying. From behind plate glass, with an 80s
backbeat pounding in his brain, Marcus Clay watches it all happen, and
prays that he can make a go with his downtown record store. Then a car
comes careening down U Street, and what Marcus sees next will plunge him
into the middle of a war.
A drug runner is decapitated in the crash. A bystander--a white boy
desperate to buy a woman's love--snatches a bag of cash from the wreck,
and a prince of crime wants it back. For Marcus's buddy, Dimitri Karras,
the mayhem is a chance to make a score. For a pair of dirty cops it's a
chance to get free. And for dozens of lives swept up into the maelstrom,
it's just another springtime in America's capital, where the game is
played for keeps.