To put it frankly, Diamond Lil was a beautiful short course to Hell.' Star of the Bowery saloon owned by powerful Gus Jordan, her latest lover, she likes nothing better than 'the white flame of her diamonds or the varied red flames of men's passions.' And seething downtown New York in the Naughty Nineties gives her plenty of both. It's all sport to her- jailed lovers, liquor, gambling- until handsome, mysterious Captain Cummings of the Salvation Army walks into her life. Preacher or no preacher, she wants that man more than any other.