Rosa Diaz Barclay, mourning the loss of four of her eight children, lives on a rye farm in California with her abusive husband when she finally leaves him in order to save two of her remaining children from succombing to a mysterious wasting disease and when she reunites with her ex-husband, the father of her two healthy children, they try to start a winery in the midst of prohibition.

When three down-on-thier luck losers come together in a mexican boarder town to start a booze-running operation during Prohibition, egos, enemies, and envy collide. But through some mysterious alchemy and a couple of gunfights, the three become immensely successful bootleggers.

Years afterwards, Ruben Hart tells the story of how, in 1929 Newport, Rhode Island, his family and his best friend's family were caught up in the violent competition among groups trying to control the local rum-smuggling trade.