In 1934, the second most lucrative business in New York City was running 'the numbers'. When Madam Queen—the powerful woman who runs the scam in Harlem—is arrested, Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson takes over the business and must resist an invasion from a merciless mobster.

After thirty years teaching in London, Mark Thackeray retires and returns to Chicago. There, however, the challenge of teaching kids in an inner city school proves to be too much to resist.

Emotionally scarred by a string of unsuccessful relationships, artist Marilyn Ross has her guard up when it comes to men. While she's reluctant to embark on a new romance, she also can't deny the attraction she feels upon meeting recent divorcee Rodney Porter. As sparks fly and Marilyn finds herself experiencing sexual bliss, she also feels conflicted about giving up her hard-won independence. Does finding the perfect man also mean relinquishing one's self-respect?

U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard is accompanying a plane load of convicts from Chicago to New York. The plane crashes spectacularly, and Mark Sheridan escapes. But when Diplomatic Security Agent John Royce is assigned to help Gerard recapture Sheridan, it becomes clear that Sheridan is more than just another murderer.