The charismatic and controversial tabloid columnist Mike McAlary covered the scandal- and graffiti-ridden New York of the 1980s. From his sensational reporting of New York's major police corruption to the libel suit that nearly ended his career, the play dramatizes the story of McAlary's meteoric rise, fall, and rise again, ending with his coverage of the Abner Louima case for which he won the Pulitzer Prize, shortly before his untimely death on Christmas Day, 1998.