In early-1970s Las Vegas, Sam "Ace" Rothstein gets tapped by his bosses to head the Tangiers Casino. At first, he's a great success in the job, but over the years, problems with his loose-cannon enforcer Nicky Santoro, his ex-hustler wife Ginger, her con-artist ex Lester Diamond and a handful of corrupt politicians put Sam in ever-increasing danger.

Reformed con man Jack MacShayne is back, this time as the head of security at the Las Vegas hotel he stayed at in MacShayne: Winner Takes All. As part of his new job, he's charged with protecting a variety of distinguished guests, from the kleptomaniac grandson of the hotel's CEO to the lounge singer whose ex-husband shows up dead. Meanwhile, a senatorial candidate is relying on MacShayne to keep him safe from a deadly hit man.

When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers' cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.