In the early twentieth century, along the Mississippi River, the youngest child of a railroad engineer began a life journey that was marked by events shaping the years leading the United States into a new brave world. Born into a lower middle-class family, Fred Whalen became one of the most prolific hustlers of all time. He took what those days dealt him and played the best hand he could.

At the age of twelve, he became a protege of a part-time pool hustler known at Tennessee Brown. Brown was a respected pillar of his community but had an opposite persona when he traveled away from home. Brown saw a natural talent in Fred, combined with the boy's inherent brashness and courage in situations in which most boys his age would wither.

Brown introduces Fred to the less-than-conventional world of gambling on one's self and abilities. He realized that Fred's work ethic, determination, and energy could be molded into a formidable opponent of those players confusing skill with youth. In his image, he created the prodigy known as Young Tennessee Brown.

Fred enlarged this talent into a life that filled the years of a century that saw soaring prosperity, Prohibition, the despair of a Depression, world wars, and a string of years that created the greatest nation in the world.