The Scarpas were a New York Mafia dynasty led by Greg Scarpa Sr., nicknamed 'The Grim Reaper' for his brutal addiction to violence and murder. But since the 1960s Scarpa had also been a Top Echelon Informant for the FBI.

Betrayed by the father he worshipped, his son Gregory Jr. still festers in Colorado's maximum security ADMAX prison, where his information of a plot that resulted in 9/11 was fatefully ignored by the authorities.

Granted unique inside access to Greg Jr. and to the FBI, Sandra Harmon pries open the dark heart of the Scarpa family and tells an unforgettable tale of violence, wealth, and sex, set in a world where a man's word is both everything and nothing.