August 1974. The world is focused on Watergate and the implosion of Richard Nixon, but not Johnny Jump. He could care less about Presidents or presidential malfeasance. One-quarter black, one-quarter Jewish Johnny Jump just wants be left alone to drive his cab, drink and create art, but circumstances once again won't allow it. Sixteen months after his involvement in a one day balls-to-the-wall shoot 'em up in pursuit of a fabled one million dollars he is back at it again, this time to avenge the death of his friend, Napoleon "Tank" Dupree.It is Johnny who discovers Tank's corpse on a city side street one lonely night while driving his cab. Tank Dupree was the one man with whom Johnny felt a deep kinship. They both had served with distinction in the military; Tank in Korea, Johnny in Viet Nam. They both had been raised in hardscrabble circumstances, and they both shared an edgy but idealistic vision of what life should be. Johnny takes Tank's death hard and vows a blood oath to find and dispatch his killer...