The Rattlesnake Room

During the riotous Christmas party of the Merchants and Miners State Bank in December 1967, Larry Eliot, a banker with an acute social conscience, is promoted to the office of Executive-Vice-President. Afterwards he is taken to the Rattlesnake Room, a topless bar, by his friend and rival bank officer, Jimmy Jefferies. There he meets Doris, a beautiful black dancer, and after a few meetings she seduces him. At the same time, Jimmy attempts to take over the bank, and Larry becomes involved in the congressional campaign of Sally Graham, an antiwar candidate, who is running in the Democratic primary against long-time congressman, Bill Clamber.

As the fights for the bank and the congressional nomination intensify during the Spring and Summer of 1968, Larry continues his secret affair with Doris, as the nation erupts in violent protests and riots after the Tet uprising in Viet Nam, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, and the bloody Democratic convention in Chicago. Finally the affair with Doris leads to Larry´s arrest for murder.