The story is set in the 1920s in Chicago and tells the story of Dickie Dick Dickens evolving from a simple pickpocket to the "most dangerous man in Chicago's underworld", "a shining star in the wonderful million city's gangster sky".
An important part of the play is the two narrators who underline that the story is based on "countless partly dubious, partly non-existing sources" which form the basis for an "in every detail truthful rendering" [REF].