Drifter Axel North has just arrived in New York City| having traveled from city to city throughout the country. Given the name Charlie Malick as a contact by anacquaintance named Ed Faber| Axel is able to get a job working as a stevedore in Charlie's gang on the dockyards. Little did Axel know that Charlie is corrupt|requiring payola for that job| and is a racist. It is solely because of the color of his skin that Charlie hates his fellow gang boss| Tommy Tyler| a black man. Itis also because he can see that Axel is a little wet behind the ears that Tommy tries to befriend him to get him out from under Charlie's thumb. Due solely to thereason that he is a drifter| Axel is slow to warm and open up to Tommy| eventually providing some basic information: that he is originally from Gary| Indiana| thathis real surname is Nordmann| and that the only person he has ever really loved in his life was his older brother Andy| whose death exacerbated the already strainedrelationship he has ...