Money in 1923 is an object of excess, not restraint or caution. New York City is a metropolis of big business and Wall Street and gritty finance. It's the Gilded Age and Maxwell Engelbert De Wolfe loves being immersed in it. A New York-based financier and owner of De Wolfe & Fitch, he's one of the world's wealthiest men.

The fifty-four-year-old De Wolfe is trapped in a loveless marriage to Alexandra Bauer, a marriage arranged between two wealthy German families thirty-one years ago. To satisfy his needs, he maintains Eva Durant as his mistress, hiding her in a building at 10 Ballad Street, a deserted lower Manhattan location. Eva, a gorgeous showgirl, is keeping a secret from De Wolfe that, if exposed, will destroy De Wolfe and his financial empire.

Eva's older brother, Dorrell Durant, a con artist who has served seven years in Sing Sing prison, discovers Eva's relationship with De Wolfe. Evil, eloquent, brilliant, cunning, and capable, Dorrell harbors dastardly plans for Eva and De Wolfe. Not only does he blackmail De Wolfe, Dorrell hopes to outsmart him in a game of psychological warfare before bringing De Wolfe to his knees and destroying Eva, a sister he's hated since birth.