The narrative follows Harold Vreeland, a young man returning to New York after years in the West who seeks entry into fashionable society amid tensions between wealthy newcomers and established elites. His social ambitions draw him into friendships, romantic entanglements, and dealings with figures such as a stenographer, senators, and various salon acquaintances, producing intrigues and betrayals that escalate into public scandal. The book is structured in phases that track his rise, immersion in urban pleasures, and a perilous decline that forces fraught choices about reputation, a contested marriage, and the welfare of a child.