While in a philanthropic meeting promoted by the millionaire Horace Woodruff Vendig, the guest Vic Lambdin tells the history of the beginning and end of his friendship with the host to his date Mallory Flagg. When they are boys, Horace is a poor boy from a dysfunctional family and Vic's best friend who saves wealthy Martha Burnside from drowning in a river. Horace is adopted by the rich Burnside family and later sent to Harvard; he gets engaged to Martha, on whom Vic has a crush. When ambitious Horace meets the wealthier Susan Duane, who belongs to a more influential family, he calls off his engagement to Martha and moves to New York with Susan to continue his social raise. Later he meets shark Buck Mansfield and seduces his young wife Christa to profit in business, leading to tragic consequences.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil