Evelyn, the eldest daughter of New York's Winston family, is married off to Morgan, the godfather of the Gambino family, in a political union. Evelyn repeatedly sabotages the arrangement in rebellion, but Morgan always covers for her—even defying orders to fly a helicopter and risk his life to save her—and her defenses gradually begin to soften. Yet the marriage is merely a transaction: to secure a presidential pardon for his benefactor, Morgan cooperates with Evelyn's father, Vincent, in his selfish plan to pass the family business to his illegitimate son, Jaden. At a life-or-death moment, Morgan abandons Evelyn, and her heart dies. She severs ties, divorces him, cuts off the family's funding, and returns to her maternal family in Washington. With her grandfather Henry's support, her childhood sweetheart Matthew—head of the nation's highest arbitration commission—returns in force, backing Evelyn as she ascends to become the new queen of the North American underworld, crushing Morgan with overwhelming power. Morgan is consumed by regret; taking a bullet for her earns him only the sentence of "living清醒ly to suffer." Jaden and Serena, pushed to the end of their rope, kidnap Henry. Evelyn mobilizes top-level executive privileges to lock down the entire country, and a final storm of reckoning sweeps through the entire underworld.