“Having left this material for his writer son, my father must have wanted the story told, even if he couldn’t bear to tell it himself." So begins the story of a forgotten American dynasty, a farming family that became as wealthy, glamorous and powerful as Gilded Age aristocrats. But the carefully cultivated façade hid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business. In a compulsively readable story of class and privilege, betrayal and revenge, John Seabrook explores his complicated family legacy and dark corners of the American Dream.