St. Louis 1920: Located at the junction of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the city is one of the nation's largest. It's both a busy river port and major train hub. The recent enactment of national prohibition promises to bring great change. For better or worse. The city's once prosperous breweries struggle to remain in business. Most do not survive. But an emerging underground industry begins filling the gaps or the taps, as it were.

Meanwhile, restauranteur Atlas May owns and operates a modest niche within the city — the Little Daisy Cafe. But his unassuming establishment happens also to be a portal into the extensive maze of limestone caves below St. Louis. And by all accounts, Atlas is an opportunist. Soon, though St. Louis is dry on the surface, there's a wellspring underground. A club-shaped pin worn under the collar or inside the lapel grants trusted patrons access to this subterranean place— The Lackadaisy Speakeasy.

The location of St. Louis in the middle of the country means illegal liquor flows in by numerous routes. Never at a loss for supply, Lackadaisy prospers and becomes the city's most prominent bootleg operation. Atlas has a small empire. But as prohibition persists, formidable rivals begin to emerald. The competition is anything but friendly. Enemies lurk around every corner.

And in 1926, Atlas meets a violent end. Lackadaisy falls into the hands of his widow— Mitzi May. But there are rumors of her involvement in his death. Amidst shaken loyalties and mounting pressure from competitors, there is a great exodus of constituents— a near fatal blow for Lackadaisy itself.

By 1927, only a small faction of Atlas' crew and a handful of steadfast patrons remain the organization struggles to survive. And so, while the rest of the city and much of the world celebrate the spirit of St. Louis, certain other individuals are preoccupied with the sprits in St. Louis.

But then, something strange happens in St. Louis as a strange creature comes to their aid to help bring Lackadaisy back in business. A human girl named Althea Spade.