January 1932. Smalltime bootlegger Al Remp is serving 3-5 years in prison; he's done 3 years and is up for parole next week, but it seems he won't get it. The guards put him in solitary, and Remp has a visitor: Eliot Ness. Remp tells him, ""I got nothing to say to you."" But Ness tells him that if he agrees to help him nail bigtime bootlegger ""Fat"" Augie Strom, his former boss, he'll get that parole; or else 2 more years is a long time. Remp is married to a good woman; the whole time he's been in prison, she did ""stand by her man."" Remp agrees to help Ness. ""Fat"" Augie Strom is a very heavyset man who perspires even in winter, his operation is at a meat packing plant by the Chicago stockyards; he likes the large refrigeration section where the meat is prepared, it's nice and cool in there-- he's the Man in the Cooler. A big man with a big temper, he has ""Bitsy"" Whyller rub out Pete Laffey for bungling a job. Remp is reunited with his faithful wife Marcie; but he also h