A Dangerous Fortune

In 1866, at Windfield School, an English boarding school, a group of boys sneak out to swim in a disused quarry. Sixteen-year-old Micky Miranda, from Cordova, a South American country, persuades his roommate Edward Pilaster, heir to a wealthy banking dynasty, to join him. At the quarry they find three younger boys: Antonio "Tonio" Silva, a fellow Cordovan; Hugh Pilaster, Edward's poorer cousin; and Peter Middleton, a friend of Hugh's. Edward bullies the younger boys by throwing their clothes into the water. Hugh pushes Edward into the pool and escapes, but Edward retaliates by ducking Peter's head underwater. While Edward chases Tonio, Micky holds Peter beneath the surface until he drowns. At the inquest, Micky testifies that Edward tried to rescue Peter, and the verdict is accidental death. Edward's mother Augusta, a ruthlessly ambitious woman, interrogates Micky and learns a partial truth: Edward's rough treatment exhausted Peter, causing him to drown. Micky's false testimony binds them in conspiracy, beginning decades of mutual dependence. That same day, Hugh learns his father Tobias has gone bankrupt and hanged himself. Eleven-year-old Maisie Robinson, born Miriam Rabinowicz, discovers her father lost his job because of Tobias's collapse. She and her brother Danny run away from home, Danny stowing away to America while Maisie walks alone to Newcastle.

Seven years later, Micky's father, Papa Miranda, a brutal landowner, arrives in London needing rifles to destroy a rival family and seize their nitrate mines. Micky steers the deal toward Pilasters Bank, but the elderly Senior Partner, Old Seth Pilaster, a devout Methodist, refuses to finance arms sales. Augusta schemes to install her husband Joseph as the next Senior Partner instead of Seth's son Samuel, planting insinuations among her sisters-in-law about Samuel's male companion. She also sabotages Hugh's romance with Lady Florence Stalworthy by spreading lies about inherited gambling weakness. Maisie, now eighteen, arrives in London after years in a circus and becomes known as "The Lioness." She and Hugh meet at a dance hall and quarrel over their fathers' intertwined ruin, but at the Goodwood races their antagonism softens into attraction. Caught in a rainstorm, they take shelter at Augusta's house and make love. Augusta seizes the opportunity, banishing Hugh to the bank's Boston office and manipulating Maisie into disappearing by persuading her that staying would destroy Hugh's career. Separately, Augusta gives Micky money to stake a card game against Tonio. Micky uses rigged decks to humiliate Tonio publicly and force him out of London, then takes over Tonio's diplomatic post.

With Papa Miranda's departure looming, Micky visits Old Seth's sickroom and smothers him with a pillow. Augusta catches him but conceals the murder, embracing Micky in a moment of fierce passion, their only physical encounter. Joseph becomes Senior Partner and the rifle deal goes through. Maisie discovers she is pregnant with Hugh's child but learns that Hugh has already sailed for Boston. She faces her pregnancy alone.

In January 1879, Hugh returns from six years in America, having made Pilasters the leader in North American banking. At a dinner party, he discovers that Solly Greenbourne, the amiable heir to Greenbournes Bank, has married Maisie, who now has a five-year-old son called Bertie. Augusta launches a campaign to secure Joseph a peerage, cultivating journalists, politicians, and courtiers. She pushes Edward to marry Emily Maple, a minister's daughter, by offering a partnership as incentive. Micky marries Rachel Bodwin, a women's rights campaigner. At a costume ball, Augusta orchestrates a scandal involving Hugh's new wife Nora, a working-class woman: She arranges for Count de Tokoly, a Hungarian diplomat, to make advances, and when Nora slaps him in front of the Prince of Wales, Joseph declares Hugh unfit for partnership. Hugh resigns and joins Greenbournes Bank.

Tonio resurfaces with affidavits exposing brutal conditions at the Miranda family's mines. Micky has thugs steal the evidence and sends the witnesses' names to Papa Miranda, who has them killed. Emily, desperate to consummate her marriage, learns through Maisie that Edward can only perform when Micky is present. A scheme to trick Edward into sleeping with Emily fails when he discovers the deception and beats her. Maisie coaches Nora in social graces and engineers her rehabilitation before the Prince of Wales. Joseph, pressured by his American partner, offers Hugh a partnership at Pilasters.

Augusta's campaign succeeds: Joseph becomes the Earl of Whitehaven, while Solly's father Ben Greenbourne is denied a peerage after anti-Jewish articles Augusta orchestrated appear in the press. Solly learns the truth and threatens to sever all ties between the two banks. Micky pushes Solly into the path of a speeding carriage, killing him. Hugh sees Micky returning to the scene and harbors suspicions. Hugh later discovers that Bertie is his own son, conceived the night he and Maisie spent together. He is about to leave Nora when she announces she is pregnant, and duty keeps him in the marriage.

Eleven years pass. Joseph dies in 1890, and Augusta forces Edward's appointment as Senior Partner by threatening to withdraw the family's capital. Hugh visits Tonio in hospital and learns that Micky deliberately drowned Peter Middleton. Hugh cannot act on the revelation: Micky has diplomatic immunity, Tonio is the only witness, and the crime occurred 24 years earlier. Edward, confronted with the truth, confirms the motive. Peter had witnessed Micky stealing six gold sovereigns and threatened to tell. Micky proposes a 2-million-pound loan for Santamaria Harbour, actually intended to finance Papa Miranda's revolution. Hugh mandates the bonds be sold on commission, but Edward secretly signs an underwriting contract guaranteeing the full amount. The bonds sell poorly, costing the bank 1.4 million pounds. Edward is forced out and Hugh becomes Senior Partner.

War erupts in Cordova, bonds crash, and Pilasters cannot pay its creditors. Hugh closes the bank and proposes a rescue syndicate. Ben Greenbourne initially refuses, but Maisie, who with Rachel Bodwin runs a hospital for unmarried pregnant women, discovers that a patient is Greenbourne's missing granddaughter Rebecca. Maisie reunites them, and the grateful Greenbourne agrees to lead the syndicate.

Tonio returns to London as the new legitimate Cordovan Minister, planning to restore the bonds' value by having the new government seize Miranda assets. Micky, whose diplomatic immunity is now gone, follows Tonio and shoots him dead. Hugh witnesses the murder but Micky escapes on a departing train. Micky persuades Augusta to help him flee England, declaring his love and proposing marriage. She hides him in her steamer trunk and packs Joseph's jewelled snuff-boxes. Hugh intercepts Augusta at Southampton and recovers the snuff-boxes, but Micky boards the ship undetected. At sea, Micky reveals his contempt and cruelly rejects Augusta. She tricks him back into the trunk, locks it, and pushes it overboard, drowning him. On Christmas Eve, Nora abandons Hugh and their three sons. Maisie finds the children alone and cares for them. When Hugh arrives, they embrace, and he tells her he has always loved her.

In 1892, Hugh and Maisie marry after Nora agrees to a divorce. Ben Greenbourne endorses Hugh's plan to launch a new bank, Pilasters Limited. The rescue syndicate makes a small profit after the new Cordovan government seizes the Miranda family's mines, restoring the bonds' value. Hugh visits the swimming hole one last time. Of the boys from 1866, only Hugh and Albert Cammel, another schoolboy who was present at the quarry that day, survive. The debts are paid. He turns away and walks back to his family.