In 1930s Birmingham, Alden Roth built his fortune by leveraging his wife Seraphina’s control over the city’s shipping and prime real estate, all while secretly conspiring with his mistress, Adelaide, and the Irish mob to smuggle arms and bootleg liquor. When Seraphina threatened to expose them using her meticulous ledgers, she was framed for treason; four thugs beat her to death in a warehouse, leaving her four-year-old daughter, Nova, abandoned in the slums. Kael, leader of the Rose Gang, rescued the dying Nova and spent twenty years training her in marksmanship, negotiation, and the art of territorial conquest. Nova rose methodically to power, uniting the docks, taverns, and casinos under her command; backed by two hundred female gunslingers and thousands of informants, she became known as the "Black Rose of Thorns." After the Roth family faced bankruptcy, Adelaide devised a sinister scheme to lure Nova back: forcing her to impersonate her adoptive sister, Iris, in a marriage alliance with steel magnate Silvan, while simultaneously conspiring with the Irish mob to annihilate the Rose Gang. Seeing through the plot instantly, Nova donned the humble attire of a timid orphan to infiltrate the estate, setting a complex web of vengeance in motion.
