Born into squalor, Raymond Nasco’s quest for wealth and power shrouds two generations with deceit, murder, rape and illicit love. Setting his sights above and beyond the family’s two-room apartment in a New York City lower eastside tenement, Raymond befriends Guy Straga, the son of a wealthy business tycoon, and they develop a lifelong friendship and bond. Caught in Raymond’s powerful grip, his wife, Adele, commits the ultimate sin; and his son, Spencer, betrays himself and the woman he loves and finally becomes his father’s son. Years later Kay Straga stumbles upon the secret that has been lurking in the shadows of the Straga and Nasco families for two generations, a secret that tempts her with forbidden love, a secret that once uncovered will keep her in its clutches from which there is no escape.