This is the stoiry of two groups of people in a mid-size New Jersey city in the late 1980s and early 1990s. One group is the staff of Education Management, Inc., and the other consists of the owners and residents of a condominium, Brookfield Town Homes. At the corporation the primary focus is on the Marketing division, newly headed by Jerilynn Grady, who lacks experience but is headstrong and ambitious. She immediately alienates her top lieutenants, Claude Dixon (press relations) and Marilyn Brentano (publications). Jerilynn sees everyone as a friend or enemy. Dixon provides the link to the condo group. He and Elise Barksdale.

a black fellow owner, work together to solve the owners association's persistent serious financial problems. Both groups have conflicts and disputes that include romances, marriages, divorces, affairs; political fallings out; racial, ethnic, and cultural differences; health issues including Alzheimer's disease, alcoholism, and depression. Jerilynn finally destroys herself by trying to topple the CEO and his paramour, the executive vice president. The condo owners try unsuccessfully to get the Resolution Trust Corporation to complete the construction repairs promised by the failed Savings & Loan association. Claude and Elise negotiate a low-interest municipal loan to avert disaster. Still, the owners face dire financial straits.