In early 20th-century Sicily, talented painter Mimi Inglese aspires to be the first woman to attend the Palermo Art Academy. But when she contracts tuberculosis, her dreams are shattered.

Forced to move to Manhattan with her family, Mimi finds herself immersed in the gritty underbelly of city life. She becomes entangled in her father's money laundering operation. When he is sent to prison, Mimi resorts to counterfeiting $5 bills to save her family from starvation and perhaps to save enough to make art again. Tragedy strikes once more when her sister dies. Overwhelmed by grief and guilt, Mimi finally abandons her artistic ambitions to care for her sister's child, Sebu.

As gangland violence spirals out of control and a devastating fire forces Mimi to confront her future, she must decide: does she have the courage to flee westward with Sebu and finally build a life of her own making? A gritty story of a woman's struggle for survival in a brutal world.