This story of modern-day New York and Wall Street is told by a well-known financial journalist, Ned Hartley, his account focused on the enigmatic Max, an intriguing figure who has become a name on Wall Street. In addition he is a leader of New York's nightclub crowd and one of the city's most inventive party givers. This is especially true in the Hamptons, where he rents the grand, beach house once owned by Ned's uncle, Black Jack Hartley. Accompanied by the beautiful model, Clarisse, Max enhances his repuration with the most lavish parties of the season on the East End.
No one knows where Max comes from or his true identity. A rumor circulating in the club scene claims that he is the son of a famous British spy. Suddenly Max is involved in a sordid murder and quickly leaves the city. Ned, who has become his friend, journeys to the remote location where Max has fled and learns the unexpected truth about his past. Also he meets Max's sister, the lovely Emily, and falls in love. However, there is a debt to be paid and Wall Street's cruel hand reaches out to intervene.
Along the way the reader learns the truth about the new Wall Street, including the cause of the crash of 2008 that collapsed the global financial system. Meanwhile there lingers on the memory of Max's fabulous parties on those summer nights in the Hamptons. As Ned observes: "I stopped the car. Beneath the huge, August moon, a large field reached away for miles filled with multi-million dollar houses that most of the year are hardly used. What an extraordinary sight - this moneyed realm bathed in the glow of an enormous, golden moon you could almost reach out and touch. None of it looked real as if I was gazing on a magical kingdom that had come alive for a few, brief hours."
