During the Great Depression, Gift and his sister Maggie live in a Pittsburgh tenement with their brutal father and their abused mother. At the connivance of their father they are sent to a "school", in reality a autocratic indoctrination center. Gift and Maggie escape, only to face the dangers of an angry crocodile, a torture chamber, and an old haunted house, all overshadowed by the St Patrick's Day Flood, rapidly engulfing the city.
