A kaleidoscopic portrait of New York City in 1977, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning is the story of two epic battles: the fight between Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson and team manager Billy Martin, and the battle between Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch for the city's mayorship. Buried beneath these parallel conflicts--one for the soul of baseball, the other for the soul of a city--was the subtext of race. The brash and confident Jackson took every black myth and threw it back in white America's face. Koch and Cuomo ran bitterly negative campaigns that played upon urbanites' growing fears. Surrounding this braided narrative was a prowling murderer dubbed the "Son of Sam," the acquisition of the New York Post by the unknown Rupert Murdoch, the opening of Studio 54, the infamous blackout, the evolution of punk rock, and the dawning of modern SoHo.