A politician plans to expose a financial scandal, but an investor threatens to reveal his past secret if he does. His unforgiving wife adds to his dilemma of navigating the scandal and potential exposure.

A prominent politician is preparing to expose a financial scandal. But then a woman who has invested heavily in the shady venture threatens to uncover a damaging secret in the politician's past if he exposes the speculation as a fraud. His problem is compounded by his wife's intolerance of the slightest character flaws.—Snow Leopard

It's 1895 among London's high society where honor among humankind is the most valued character, that is under the assumption that one has money and with it wields power and influence. Undersecretary with the government Sir Robert and Lady Gertrude Chiltern are hosting a lavish gala in their home. One of the invited guests is Laura Greveley, who has recently returned to London after living abroad for years, most recently in Vienna. She is now using the surname of her second and latest husband. Before extending the invitation, Lady Chiltern had no idea that Mrs. Greveley is her old much disliked schoolmate, as she went by her first husband's surname when she last lived in London. That dislike is due to her dishonorable nature. Despite her dislike in return for Lady Chiltern, Mrs. Greveley has an ulterior motive in attending the gala--with physical evidence in her possession, she plans to blackmail Sir Robert to make a public statement in the House supporting a controversial canal project in Argentina. This would be in return for her silence concerning his selling of government information when he was starting his political life--that information which was the basis not only of his career but his wealth, and information of which Lady Chiltern is totally unaware. As Sir Robert contemplates what to do in his opposition to knowing the canal project a fraud against what Mrs. Greveley knowing coming to light which would ruin his life. What happens between Mrs. Greveley and Sir Robert ends up being a battle of wills between Mrs. Greveley and Sir Robert's best friend, Viscount Arthur Goring, a carefree bachelor whom Sir Robert does not initially know was once shortly engaged to Mrs. Greveley before he discovered her true nature.—Huggo