Crime is up, schools have repeatedly shut down due to conflict between City Hall and the powerful teachers' union, and COVID-19 only deepened the entrenched poverty, institutional racism, and endless tug of war between the city's haves and have nots.

Enter first-term mayor and rookie politician Lori Lightfoot, who found herself at the center of this...

Crime is up, schools have repeatedly shut down due to conflict between City Hall and the powerful teachers' union, and COVID-19 only deepened the entrenched poverty, institutional racism, and endless tug of war between the city's haves and have nots.

Enter first-term mayor and rookie politician Lori Lightfoot, who found herself at the center of this storm. A groundbreaking figure as the first Black, gay woman to be elected mayor of a major city and only the second female mayor of Chicago, she knew the city was at a critical turning point when she took office in 2019. But the once-in-a-lifetime challenges she ended up facing were beyond anything she or anyone else saw coming.

Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt offers a behind-the-scenes look at the tumultuous single term of Mayor Lightfoot and the chaos roiling the city and City Hall as Chicago fights to remain a global city.

Ultimately, the mayor's temper, inability to build alliances, and inexperience have deepened the city's vulnerabilities, leaving her isolated and throwing the city's future into question.