It is the New York of the 1990s, during the last real estate crisis when landlords were defaulting on distressed properties and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were engaged in working out bad loans with characters both honorable and unsavory. Loan officer Louis Peller enjoyed his job of settling defaulted mortgage loans, but when he uncovers a widespread conspiracy to defraud America's largest lending institution-his obsession to get to the bottom of it quickly leads him to unsavory characters in New York's financial markets. Unprepared and naive, Peller must confront the demons that threaten him and his family. During this time of financial upheaval, it becomes glaringly obvious that everyone can be bought and no one can be trusted. Peller decides he must take control of the situation. No one else can save him.
New York's diverse racial, ethnic, and religious worlds collide while fighting to survive corruption, violence, and economic calamity. Satan's Mortgage, in foreshadowing of today's housing crisis, reveals how the lives of residents and owners, lawyers and mortgage companies are intertwined in ways that suggest fear and bravery, corruption and honesty, desperation and daring, with people acting in extraordinary ways to survive extraordinary times."