Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.

Sam is a painter who returns to Dallas for a show of his recent paintings. While there he picks the scabs off some old wounds: namely the fizzled relationship with his old girlfriend Molly who has subsequently become the hot singer/celeb on the Deep Ellum music scene and the fractured friendship with his former artist buddy George who also has a thing for Molly.