Having guaranteed a loan to help a high school classmate buy property, some years later Thomas Murdock finds himself enmeshed in a questionable real estate scheme. He has just completed his graduate studies at the Wharton School and been hired by the Wambolt Company, the oldest investment advisory firm in Philadelphia. His accidental discovery that the Wambolt family is connected to the real estate transactions exposes generations of family grievances. A lot of money is involved and bodies start showing up in the Schuylkill River. People from nice families can do bad things.