It is 1953 and Charles Robinson has been a successful private detective in New York for seven years. Although most of his clients reside in Harlem, his cases sometimes take him to other boroughs. This is one of those times. Jimmy "Smooth" Brooks, a local jazz musician, has gone missing, and his brother Jeremiah has hired Robinson to find him. As Robinson's investigation takes him from the bohemian & artistic streets of the West Village to a cold industrial section of Brooklyn, he discovers that he and Jimmy have something significant in common: They have complicated relationships with men....