It is the early 1950s and Frank "Buster" Wortman's mob runs the streets of St. Louis without fear. But a shadow haunts this city with the will to do what the police either can't or won't. A lone and silent vigilante, he stalks and strikes these men of violence under cover of dark motivated by the need for justice, revenge or, perhaps, atonement.

While the vigilante roams the night, the only surviving heir to the Pennington Department store fortune, John Pennington, aimlessly drinks his days away to the missed opportunities and sins of his past. All the while, the fate of this shadow of a man and man of the shadows hurtles inexorably towards humility.