It’s 1929 and Hudson Valley based bootlegger Dutch Schultz decides to escape the heat of the feds by opening a swanky speakeasy, the Abba Dabba Club, at Congress Hall in Cape May. Operating out-of-sight on the south Jersey shore seems to be a surefire way of keeping the law away. The club also gives Dutch’s new girlfriend, Lu Lu, a classy place to sing her songs. Unfortunately, local flapper Rosie doesn’t like competition.

In the kitchen of the Speakeasy you’ll find Dutch’s long-time friend and cook, Hash House Harry. He’s an unsavory character that slugs moonshine and prepares his usual menu of one-pan mysteries. As he prepares dinner for Dutch’s opening night guests he is interrupted by a visitor. It seems Lu Lu has gone behind Dutch’s back by hiring a first class chef, Flora Dora Carbonara, to beef up the speakeasy’s nauseating menu. Harry, who only uses a spatula and a frying pan, isn’t happy with Flora’s tools and high-class spices any of which could be as lethal as a gangster’s bullet.

Sergeant Lance Boyle, a local cop who works both sides of the law, is the club’s greeter and bouncer. His palm is always ready to take a bribe and he can smell an undercover agent from a mile away. Looking over his shoulder is Needles, a longtime associate of Dutch’s, who is on hand to emcee the entertainment portion of the evening.

You’ll dance, dine and gulp the best hooch in New York State as long as the temperance union and a rival bootlegger and gangster don’t rain on Dutch’s opening night. But in an illegal speakeasy nothing good lasts very long. Before Lu Lu sings her second song, tempers flair, bullets rain and a masked gunman bursts upon the scene. At least one body will fall and it doesn’t look like the Charleston did it. And it may not have been the bullets, either!] For that matter it might not have been the bullets. Flora Dora, the new chef and Hash House Harry, Dutch’s greasy spoon cook, are suddenly missing cooking tools and food spices and additives any of which would make a perfect murder weapon.