Squeezing the Flats is a love story ensnared in a 1988 Mafia scheme to build Pennsylvania's first full-service casino on Pittsburgh's South Side Flats, a disinvested community that's ripe for gentrification. Becker resists Angelo Gigliotta's pressure while Allyson and Laurie try to protect him in different ways. Others shape the battle-Jingle Bell, an unemployed coal miner; Lacey Hammer, head of the City's Black organized crime; John Corelli, former free-lance hit man and Becker's best friend; Weez Draney who wants a child from him; Rooky Gondleman, former Weatherman who plans to publish a devastating memoir; Wanda Smith, Lacey's niece, who operates a successful potions business; and Shifty Slapperstein, Becker's oldest friend who files a RICO suit against Gigliotta.