Michael Simmons, Mikey to his boyhood buddies, is a South Philly kid. Growing up a Jew in a predominantly Catholic Italian neighborhood, he learns early that life is a series of alternating feelings of alienation and acceptance.This sets the pattern for his whole life as he becomes a prosecutor in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, even while maintaining his lifelong friendship with Johnny Rags, who has become an important figure in the Philadelphia organized crime scene.Johnny Rags influence with people in high places helps Michael go on to achieve great success as a partner in the city's largest and most prestigious law firm where he becomes a mover and shaker in local politics.At the height of his success, Michael becomes the victim of a dreadful automobile accident in which he suffers brain injuries that destroy his ability to continue his chosen career.In the grip of severe depression, Michael faces the devil in his soul and decides he must do something drastic to reclaim his life, even though it means leaving his loving wife, Harriet, and assuming a new identity.Simmons sets a new goal; to steal a Native American artifact, a golden arrow, now on exhibit as part of a well-guarded display at a posh Phoenix resort. Only the possession of this arrow, he believes, will restore his sanity and purge the devil within.