Nina's Smile

Situated on the South Side of Chicago, the neighborhood of Jeffery Manor could almost be described as bucolic. Sure, it had its rough edges, but by and large, the white working-class community was a good place to grow up in the 1960s.

Fourteen-year-old Jimmy Moriarty lives in Jeffery Manor and works as a newspaper boy at South Chicago Community Hospital. Yesterday, one of the student nurses smiled at him. Today, she’s dead, one of eight nurses brutally, inexplicably slaughtered by madman, Richard Speck. The murders are considered the first mass murder in modern U.S. History

The killings bring national attention to Jeffery Manor, as Jimmy struggles to make sense of the violence that has invaded his life. As he does, the young man has his eyes opened to the ugly underbelly of his community. Black families are moving into the heavily white neighborhood—stirring up resentment and bigotry among the neighbors that Jimmy has known his whole life.

As racial tensions simmer to a slow boil and a series of accidents claims young lives, Jimmy’s world changes forever. Some claim the neighborhood is cursed, but the truth is much less dramatic. The darker side of life has come to Jeffery Manor. How Jimmy reacts will color his entire life.