At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. Cyril's son Danny and his older sister Maeve are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another.

1. Brothers and sisters -- Fiction.; 2. Dysfunctional families -- Fiction.; 3. Stepmothers -- Fiction.; 4. Poverty -- Fiction..; 5. Inheritance and succession -- Fiction.; 6. Families -- Fiction.; 7. Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Fiction.; 8. Historical fiction.; 9. Domestic fiction.;