Calling Shots

Calling Shots tells the story of a young shopgirl named Slender McNally, who struggles to keep her family together in the aftermath of a tragedy, all while trying to operate a deli in Queens alone. Her mother, rarely present, is consumed nightly with men and speakeasies. Her sister, an acid-tongued, aspiring stage actress is fixated only on becoming a star. But for Slender, the moment things begin to rev and roar is when she happens upon a gangster named Joey the Mouse, who pulls her into the middle of a turf war.

All Claire "Slender" McNally wants is for her mother Stella to take better care of herself and sister Bianca to display any sort of empathy for Slender's circumstance. Each day, Slender heads off to their family-owned deli so that she might make just enough to pay the rent and buy a new dress now and again. The days are an endless cycle of baking and serving. Then one day, a routine accounting trip leads her to check up on an unsettled debt. What she finds surprises her--a young, well-dressed man of considerable wealth who asks her to accompany him to dinner.

Quickly, her emotions are caught in a whirlwind of excitement, especially when he arrives in a Rolls-Royce, complete with driver, and whisks her off to the finest clothing shop in New York City for a dinner dress, inexplicably transforming her into a flapper. But the move comes with a price, notably when he sneaks Slender into a speakeasy called The Sudsbucket run by his boss, a celebrated gangster nicknamed Soapy Callahan on account of his public front as a soap and perfume salesman. So when Slender discovers the true intentions of Joey the Mouse, she wants out. But what Joey doesn't say to her that first night at The Sudsbucket is that he has a plan for her whether she likes it or not...because Soapy Callahan is expanding his bootlegging empire and he wants Slender's deli. And the boss gets what he wants.