In the underground of San Francisco, a secretive network of gangs was breeding in Chinatown, gaining strength as immigrants flooded the city. After a bloody 1977 showdown, these gangs were deemed an imminent threat to the city. Now, rare archival footage and intimate interviews with those closest to the case reveal the dark side of San Francisco of illegal gambling, brutal robberies, drugs, and violence.

A mesmerizing narrative about the Cheng Chui Ping slipped into the United States in the early 1980s, part of a huge wave of Chinese immigrants hoping to realize the American Dream. Her path to that dream began with an underground bank for illegal immigrants run out of a noodle shop in New York City s Chinatown. She became known as Sister Ping and built a global people-smuggling conglomerate that stretched from China’s Fujian province to Africa, Europe, and South America, relying on one of Chinatown’s most violent gangs to protect her power and profits.