A Gay-Nineties musical set in New York City's Bowery and East Side explores the life of its inhabitants--an Irish policeman and his tap-dancing daughter and music-hall wife; a German professor of music and his singing daughter; and an Italian café-owner, a kind priest, a struggling young doctor, and a saloon-keeper--And political ward-heeler, Terrence Dowd, who has a deceptive and dishonest plan to sell them all out in order to build a fight arena. But he meets his match in property-owner Claire Adamson.