In the late nineteenth century, Newport, Rhode Island - with its giant marble mansions, lavish dinner parties, and vicious social climbing - is a summer playground of the very rich. Into this rarefied world comes infamous railroad mogul and robber baron Sam Driver. He wants his beautiful daughter to have the best Newport has to offer - even if that means breaking all the rules...

John Jakes brings his formidable writing talent to bring to life an America of the 1890s, an era where outrageous opulence masked society's dark underbelly.