From the introduction: It is 1921, and New York has sliced itself in half. A 30-foot cast iron fence runs down the middle of Broadway, from the Battery to Marble Hill, dividing the bustling Eastside from the dying Westside. East of the fence, there is food, light, and hope, but for the few thousand left on the West, there is nothing but darkness, death, and the cold comfort of rotgut gin. You are a citizen of the Westside. Will you save it — or burn it to the ground?