Norman Mushari positions himself to benefit from the Rosewater Foundation, valued at over $87 million. Mushari is small in stature and of Lebanese descent. After graduating from Cornell Law School, he becomes the youngest member of the law firm McAllister, Robjent, Reed, and McGee, which the elderly partner Thurmond McAllister supervises. Mushari attempts to manipulate the line of succession in the Rosewater Foundation when finds a loophole in the foundation’s rules stating that any officer deemed “insane” can be ousted.

Eliot Rosewater—son of Senator Lister Ames Rosewater and the current president of the Rosewater Foundation—is eccentric and rumored to be “mentally incompetent.” Eliot inherited the foundation in 1947. His potential successor, Fred Rosewater, is a distant cousin whom Mushari hopes to represent. Mushari’s success would allow him to manipulate Fred and control the dispersal of the funds. Mushari begins his investigation 17 years after Eliot takes control of the foundation, when Eliot is 46 years old.

Mushari discovers a letter in the firm’s safe that Eliot has written to whoever succeeds him. The letter details the history of the Rosewater fortune and the family, beginning with Noah Rosewater in the Civil War and concluding with Eliot.