Chicago, 1949.

When Mobster Joey Gallo, a.k.a. "Tough Joe”, finally gets out of jail, he doesn’t want to go back to his former life, although that turns out to be more difficult than expected, even after he did a six year stretch for his boss Clemente.

Everything seems to be determined to get him back to Chicago. Lack of money for instance, but most of all his former fiancé Lucy, the bosses daughter ...