Honore e Famiglia by Wayne van Dalsum - Period Drama - 1915. An Italian immigrant takes over Albany's fledgling mafia and builds a highly successful operation. But when he dies and his son is thrown into jail, his daughter has to take over to avert a mob war, in a society where the woman's place is barefoot in the kitchen. 99 pages - pdf, format

Courhaw, thanks for reading and commenting. Brilliant. Yeah, I started out wanting to write a strong female role, and it ended up being an ensemble piece where the emancipation theme only came out after Marco's death. But there you go. Sometimes these stories get away on me.
I didn't use subtitles at the beginning because it isn't important to know what he's saying in the first scene, just that he's getting along fine with the other Italians, and the other smaller things like amore etc. I figured people would just know.
I figured the inciting incident was Marco shooting the three incumbent mafiosi on the same day as the birth of his kids. That comes on the first page, I know, but I didn't want to waste any time. Then there is the day of Rocco's arrest when Marco has the stroke - that puts Bessie in the position to do what she has always wanted: take over the family business.
What page did you get to, btw?