Plot Summary by Helen Chavez.

It is Chicago in the 1930s, business is bad (apart from those who indulge in business of a more nefarious nature), and the members of The Cauliflower Trust are bemoaning their losses. Nobody, it seems, has any money, let alone any spare cash to buy cauliflower. As the Great Depression grips the Windy City, vegetables are the least of peoples' problems.

Into this equation steps Arturo Ui, a local gangster seeking power, and here he sees an opportunity to hold sway over the city. But Ui is a paranoid sociopath, alternately swayed by the advice of his Lieutenant, Ernesto Roma, and by his own fanatical self-aggrandising nature. As he begins to take a firm grip - through reasonable words backed up by threats and violence - Ui begins to see the possibilities of furthering his hold not only on Chicago, but on towns and cities he decides are ripe for the picking, such as the little town of Cicero.

Through political manoeuvring he murders, bombs and machine-guns his way to power - but then his psychosis begins to take hold, the whisperings of his henchmen leading him to think of betrayal in his own ranks, and bloodshed ensues.

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