It is the summer of 1950, and a heat wave has overtaken Manhattan. Two unlikely friends - eighteen-year-old Vinny Vesta, the tough Sicilian head of a street gang, and Sidney Butcher, a sickly, whip-smart Jewish boy whose family has just moved in across the hall - find themselves caught in the crossfire of the war between the five Mafia families who rule New York.When Gee-gee Petrone, a ruthless and ambitious caporegime in the Luciano crime family, hires Vinny to steal forty cases of sable pelts from a civilian storage depot, it seems like business as usual. But when the cops suddenly show up before the robbery is completed, Vinny suspects a setup. He becomes convinced after Petrone demands that he fulfill the contract by stealing the pelts from a warehouse owned by a member of Petrone's own family. But what does Petrone possibly have to gain from it? Hungry for answers, Vinny agrees to play along. It is a decision with drastic consequences. That first heist leads Vinny and his gang into a vicious conflict with Petrone, who will stop at nothing to attain the coveted position of capo di tutti capi for his mentor - Vito Genovese. As Vinny's father, a made man, gets involved, and a rival street gang starts gunning for Vinny and Sidney, Hell's Kitchen becomes deadlier than ever.Based on actual events, Mafia Summer fictionalizes the pivotal moment in Mafia history when Vito Genovese attempted to undo Frank Costello and become the leader of the Luciano family. Read Less