1945 An unusual family of the Jordahs lives in the city of Port Philippe. In this family no one loves anyone. Father, Axel Djordah, works in his own bakery and hates this work and this country. His wife believes that he ruined her life and her dreams. Brought up in strict rules in a monastery shelter, she perceives the performance of marital duties as a nightmare. All three children dream of breaking out of the family. The eldest daughter Gretchen works in the office of the Boylan brick factory, and in the evenings is on duty at the hospital. She dreams of becoming an actress. She believes that one day something unusual and exciting will happen to her. The youngest son, Thomas, is a little gangster. He loves to fight and enjoys his own cruelty. At home he does not hear a single kind word. To his older brother Rudolph, the favorite of his parents, it seems that his brother even smells like a forest animal. Rudolph himself dreams of becoming rich. He has some idea of how to achieve this.
Nineteen-year-old Gretchen is a beauty. Men are not interested in her, but the wounded from the hospital, where she is on duty in the evenings, do not mind having fun with her. Two recovering blacks invite her to spend Saturday with them in the countryside, for which they promise to pay eight hundred dollars. With the thought "no, never" on Saturday, she gets on the bus and is not far from the appointed place. Theodore Boylan, owner of a brick factory, accidentally driving by car invites her to a restaurant. After dinner, drunk Gretchen tells him about his failed adventure. Teddy takes her to his mansion on the hill, and the next day Gretchen on his desk finds an envelope containing the sum she mentioned - eight hundred dollars. She becomes Teddy Boylan's lover. But Thomas’s inseparable friend (the son of a brick factory accountant and priest’s nephew), who incites him to various tricks, tracks Gretchen down. Having made his way to the window of the Boylan mansion, Thomas receives full confirmation of this. And on the day of victory over the city covered with joyful glee, a huge cross flares up on a hill. At that time, the excellent student Rudolph marches through the streets at the head of the school orchestra and purposely passes by the windows of his apartment so that his mother sees him.
On Rudolph’s birthday, when a birthday cake appears (an exceptional case - it’s not customary to celebrate anybody’s birthday in this family), the priest and his brother call his father into the corridor and talk about the participation of Thomas in setting the cross on the cross Axel immediately sends him to Elysium to his brother Harold, the owner of a car agency where Thomas will work in the garage. On the same day he leaves for New York and Gretchen, despite the fact that Teddy Boylan proposes to her. Mother already knows everything, and in parting, she calls her daughter a harlot.
The lonely and, in fact, miserable forty-year-old Teddy Boylan establishes a friendship with Rudolph, offers him his patronage upon admission to college and money for training. His proposal Gretchen remains in style. But Rudolph communicates with his sister and knows that she does not need Mr. Boylan. She is quite happy - she works as a statistician in the theater and is going to marry Willie Abbott, who makes a living by writing advertising articles.
Thomas works quietly until his connection with the twenty-five-year-old maid Clotilde is revealed. With her, Thomas first learns what love and care mean. But Uncle Harold has long been soliciting her favor, and she is forced to yield. Thomas is desperate - he can do nothing for her, because he is only sixteen years old. Soon, Thomas was sent to prison on charges of raping juvenile twins from the richest family in Elysium, with whom, however, the whole city was sleeping. Axel gives five thousand dollars for his release - all the money set aside for Rudolph’s training. At night in a bakery, he puts rat poison into one of the buns - his last message to this world in order to teach mankind a lesson. Then he gets into a boat, and the unsteady waves of a large river carry the boat to the ocean. His body will never be found.
1949 After wandering around the roads of America, Thomas arranged to work in a sports club. Here he begins to study boxing, and very successfully. All this time he does not receive any news from the family. Catching the hand of a kleptomaniac, one of the wealthiest members of the club, Thomas extorted money from him by blackmail - five thousand dollars to return to his father. But in Port Philippe he does not find his family, even a house with a bakery no longer exists. Thomas leaves money in a bank safe.
1950 With the help of Boylan, Rudolph graduates from college in the small town of Whitby. He also carries his mother there. As a student, he begins to work as a storekeeper in a local department store, then as a seller, his responsibilities are gradually expanding, earnings are growing. Department store owner Duncan Calderwood greatly appreciates Rudolph and offers him the position of assistant manager. Upon learning that he is going to stay in this hole, Rudolph's girl throws him.
Gretchen had a son, Billy. Mother still does not communicate with her.
1954 Rudolph with his friend Johnny Heath develops a project to create a trading corporation. As a result, Rudolph must become a very wealthy man. They celebrate the final signing of all the papers in New York at Gretchen’s apartment. Suddenly, a strange phone rings. Someone is looking for Mr. Jordah, but not Rudolph. Here Rudolph and Gretchen recall that they have a brother, who, as it turns out, is a boxer. The match, the wife of Thomas, the whole environment make a painful impression on Gretchen and Rudolph. The next day, Thomas commits a stupid act - he gives those five thousand to his brother. Rudolph tries to persuade Thomas to leave this money to his son, then he offers him a job, but he refuses everything and says goodbye to his relatives for the next ten years. And Rudolph invests this money in the name of Thomas in the shares of his corporation. Mother asks Thomas to visit her. He finds her a sick, unhappy old woman. In a rental car, he drives his mother around the city, takes her to a department store, then to a restaurant. She is completely happy, and Thomas feels that the people he must hate will now be one less.
1960 Gretchen divorces Abbott and marries talented film director Colin Burke, who dies in a car accident.
Rudolph buys a house in Whitby for his mother. Two operations and faith in money literally revive it. She loves to make small and large purchases for the house and even plays bridge twice a week. And her son, a monk-businessman, who made a vow of wealth instead of a vow of poverty, finally marries the charming girl Gene Prescott. She works as a photographer, fulfills orders for various magazines. But after the wedding, she confesses to Rudolph that she is fabulously rich - she has a huge inheritance.
After an unsuccessful match in Paris, where he was knocked out for the first time in his life, Thomas was forced to work for a penny as a sparring partner for a candidate for the championship title. True, Thomas is not without pleasure sleeping with his wife. During a showdown, Thomas beats the future champion so much that he is forced to hide. He gets a sailor on a Greek ship. Thomas loves this life - no more worries about money and no one asks about the past. He behaves quietly and does not get involved in any fights, but one day he has to protect his friend Dwyer from the attacks of a sailor who is terrorizing the whole team. Having properly punished the offender, Thomas does not stop there and leads him to suicide. In the nearest port, Thomas and Dwyer have to go ashore. But they already know what to do. They have a dream - to buy a yacht on the Cote d'Azur, where the weather is always for the rich, and carry passengers. Having found out the prices, Thomas flies to America hoping to get money. And gets to the mother’s funeral. The Jordahis meet here again. Mother before death forgives everyone. Even Gretchen.
After the funeral, Thomas learns from Rudolph that his five thousand dollars during this time turned into sixty thousand. Contrary to his brother’s advice, Thomas asks him to prepare all the money in cash the next day and immediately goes with them to Europe.
1963 Chairman of the Board of the D. K, Enterprises ”, co-chair of the Whitby Chamber of Commerce, graduate with honors from Whitby University, member of the board of trustees of the university, member of the Whitby and Port Philippe beautification mission, energetic and promising businessman and businessman Rudolf Jordah wants to buy the local newspaper as well. However, he is going to leave the corporation. He is advised to get involved in politics. Mayor Whitby already sees him as his successor.
This year, Jin gives birth to his daughter Inid.
1965 Thomas and Dwyer buy a yacht in the port of Antibes. Thomas calls the yacht “Clotilde”, in honor of his only and unforgettable love. After sailing for two seasons, they hire a woman, the Englishwoman Kate, as a cook. She immediately captivates them with her simplicity, and she cooks simply divine. A week later, from a separate cabin, Kate moved to Thomas's cabin.
Thomas leaves no hope of seeing his son. At his request, Rudolph makes inquiries and discovers Wesley at a military school, and his wife Thomas has two convictions for prostitution. Having presented the police director with a certificate, Thomas easily takes his son with him.
1966 Son Gretchen Billy studies at Whitby University. Relations with his mother are very strained.
Gene's second pregnancy ends in a miscarriage. She is experiencing it hard. Gretchen and Rudolph are watching a scary scene. Gin, drunk in the insole, sitting on the living room floor, hammering methodically his expensive equipment with a hammer, Gretchen immediately realizes that Gin is an alcoholic, but Rudolph does not take her warnings seriously.
1967 Billy expelled from the university. Gretchen begs his brother to use connections in Washington to save the boy from Vietnam. Rudolph fulfills her request - this is his last semi-official action. Student unrest begins at Whitby in response to strict drug control measures. An enlarged to gigantic size photo of a naked Jean appears in the university window. Rudolph immediately orders the police to clean the building at all costs using batons and tear gas. Among the students there are victims. From this evening, Rudolph is no longer the mayor.
1968 Thomas arrives in New York to treat a yacht injury and meets with Rudolph. He also looks bad. One of the brothers now does not look like a boxer, the other - the mayor. Gene is already being treated for the second time in the clinic for alcoholism. Rudolph helps Thomas file a divorce. Thomas is about to marry Kate, who is expecting a baby. Gretchen and Rudolph with Gene and daughter come to their wedding. Not only Billy - he is in the army, in Brussels. The family is reunited. But, despite the lack of alcohol on board, Gene manages to get drunk, and Thomas has to pull her out of the dirty port tavern at night. At the same time, Thomas brutally beats a man who is trying to stop him. When the whole family, except for Kate and Thomas, leaves for two days, this person gets on board the yacht. Thomas receives a severe blow to the head and dies in the hospital from extensive brain hemorrhage.
The morning after the cremation, the yacht sets sail from the shore, and Wesley pours his father’s ashes into the sea. Standing on the bow of the yacht, Dwyer looks at the approaching white mansions, bathed in the dazzling light of the morning sun. This is the weather for the rich ...
