A comic tale of gangsters, first love and the crooked path to the straight and narrow: Mercedes Bent is trying to go straight - if only her family weren"t so crooked. Mercedes has carved herself a nice little niche at the Daphne Pincher Academy for young ladies, running a sweepstake and taking bets on anything that moves. The only fly in the ointment is her arch-rival, gangster"s daughter, Harley Spinks. How come she"s got the great work placement and Mercedes has ended up in a boring bank? But things start to look up when Mercedes wangles a date with the bank"s hottest young trainee, Zak - until she finds out that it"s not just the Spinks gamg who are into dodgy dealings: her own brothers are as crooked as a pair of corkscrews too! It"s a safe bet that Mercedes will have to keep her family"s illegal acitivities under wraps - if she"s to have even an outside chance with the boy of her dreams.