By the 1860s, the Pilasters are one of the world's greatest banking families, with connections that reach from the City of London to far-afield colonies. However, as the family grow richer in the shadow of oppression and tragedy, their very future is threatened - by the self-same ambition and greed that first earned them their fortune.

By the 1860s, the Pilasters are one of the world's greatest banking families, with connections that reach from the City of London to far-afield colonies. However, as the family grow ever richer in the shadow of oppression and tragedy, their very future is threatened - by the self-same ambition and greed that first earned them their fortune. 'A full-blooded melodrama, complete with moustache-twirling villains, saintly heroes, wronged women, and a lot of plot'. - Irish Times . 'Banks, brothels, and a high body count ...it's all there'. - Financial Times . 'A compulsively readable, enjoyable thriller-cum-saga'. - Sunday Times .

The death by drowning of an adolescent schoolboy hangs like a sword of Damocles over his school-fellows long after the event; especially over the Pilasters, Victorian merchant bankers and social climbers, with remorseless internal battles of their own to fight. Now in paperback, thriller-writer Ken Follett ventures effectively into the family-saga field, with its different, but equally spellbinding, exploration of public and private morality. (Kirkus UK)