A sprawling study of Memphis begining with a Civil War massacre, the Yellow Fever epidemic and the grisly murders of the Harp Brothers. Falco traces these legends to an equally brutal twentieth century underworld - Beale Street kingpin Jim Canaan, Edward Crump's political machine and the Dixie Mafia. Also included are revelatory dialogues concerning the city's many music legends, from rockabilly icons Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Charlie Feathers to more underground figures such as Jim Dickinson and country blues wailer Jessie Mae Hemphill.