Chris Taggart is a ruthless, driven, real estate entrepreneur, whose buildings have changed the skyline of New York, and who, despite his hard-won wealth and power, can still pour concrete and carry a hod as well as cut a billion-dollar deal with the sharks of Wall Street and the big banks.

Young, handsome, irresistible to women, Taggart has won it all with his bare hands and fierce ambition. But his dazzling success can never erase the bitter memory of his father's death at the hands of the Mob--and Taggart sets out to use his wealth and power to destroy the men whom he holds responsible.

It is a secret vendetta--a war, in fact--that Taggart launches single-handedly against the Five Families of New York. It pits him against some of the toughest men in organized crime--as well as his own brother, a crusading assistant U.S. attorney, one of the Strikeforce prosecutors. Taggart risks his fortune, his reputation, finally his life, to get revenge--only to find that he has merely become one of them, that his triumph over criminals has turned him into a bigger and more dangerous criminal than any Godfather.