The play is adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by writer Nelson Johnson. In 1920, after the federal government enacted prohibition, it became illegal to sell alcohol in public. There are no laws in Atlantic City in southwestern New Jersey. On both sides of the roads running through the city, there are all kinds of hotels, nightclubs, entertainment centers, casinos, brothels, and theaters, which are comparable to Broadway in New York. Nucky (Steve Buscemi) is the boss here. In addition to the umbrella Atlantic City Sheriff Elias (Shea Whigham), a group of bosses who made their fortunes by gangster power, and a group of thugs who swore allegiance to him. Nucky carefully planned his position in the chain of bootleg liquor business, and fought a life-and-death struggle with various gangs for control of the black market.