Arctic prospector Jack McCann after fifteen years of solitary searching becomes one of the world's wealthiest men when he literally falls into a mountain of gold in 1925. Years later in 1945 he lives in luxury on a Caribbean island that he owns. But his wealth brings him no peace of mind as he copes with Helen his bored alcoholic wife; Tracy his dear but headstrong daughter who has married a dissolute philandering social-climber; and Miami mobsters who want his island to build a casino. His life is entangled with the obsessions of those around him with greed power and debauchery against a background of occult symbolism.