In a world at the brink of the 21st century, where strict social stratification is rigidly enforced, and the only manifestation of violence is in magazine pages, a photographer whose special talent is mixing violence and sex, is told to find a new girl whose freshness will rejuvenate the pages of the magazine.

This Australian crime drama chronicles the life of notorious, keen witted, acid tongued 1920s Melbourne gangster Squizzy Taylor. Wormy and diminutive, yet cunning and determined small-time hoodlum Squizzy Taylor rises to prominence and popularity in Melbourne, Australia in the 1920's. Squizzy romances brash moll Dolly and works for bookie Henry Stokes before branching out on his own while being hounded by the police and courted by the press the whole time.