New York City English professor Axel Freed outwardly seems like an upstanding citizen. But privately Freed is in the clutches of a severe gambling addiction that threatens to destroy him.
Although notorious New Orleans gangster J.D. Walker is shot and killed in the 1940s, his spirit remains restless for three decades, until a hypnotist's supernatural nightclub act allows him to take over the body of a mild-mannered law student and seek revenge on those who got him killed.
Chicagoan Frank Gallagher is the proud single dad of six smart, industrious, independent kids, who without him would be... perhaps better off. When Frank's not at the bar spending what little money they have, he's passed out on the floor. But the kids have found ways to grow up in spite of him. They may not be like any family you know, but they make no apologies for being exactly who they are.
