"Would you do anything to make it? When everything is at stake: marriage, money, your house and your reputation, there is no second chance if you lose. Laurie is determined to prove to the sceptical Sally that he is no loser. But making that transition from na ve impoverished late adolescence to dynamic, confident, solvent manhood is a difficult and dangerous journey for him. Knowing that taking up a mediocre, predictable career would stifle him, he becomes a high-risk entrepreneur. But the more success he achieves, the bigger and tougher his enemies and challenges become. Then he meets the most ruthless of them all, the charismatic corporate crook, Chas Wray. Will he do the deal of his life with Wray or will he just become yet another one of Wray's miserable victims and lose everyone and everything that's precious to him? "