Gerald Dudley is an executive at a hardware company in St. Louis, living the quintessential bachelor life in a boardinghouse with his young son, Quint. He is also a man who aspires beyond his means and class. When Gerald meets the wealthy divorcee Ann Lauterbach and the two marry, life changes irrevocably for Quint. He enters a social world of private schools and debutante balls known to him only through his father's longings. As Quint's attachment to his stepmother and her "means" grows, her marriage to his father begins to crumble in small, subtle ways, which ultimately lead to larger, more devastating consequences.