The year is 2020. Neil Manley, MBA, barely thirty and unwitting instrument of his parents’ death, returns from his Boston job to California to care for his off-the-rails sister McKenzie and her two kids, Thunder and Lightning. Now VP for tiny Malibu Bank & Trust, Manley moves himself, Kenzie, and the kids into a rented house in Oxnard, a town where romantic prospects for a young man are as common as cupcakes on the moon.
Manley and his former colleague Clint Elstrom have been discussing a banking bill from Congresswoman Anita Mitchell, Clint’s boss. Friction over this bubbles up between Manley and Christophe Santoni, his current boss, but MB&T is soon bought by two big hitters from Manley’s past as they launch APEX, a new $160 billion bank. Manley gets a huge promotion and income to match, solving most of his life’s dilemmas. Out celebrating, he meets Tina Perez, possibly the woman of his dreams, and chief of cyber-security for a national tech firm. Then, his guard down, Manley has a one-night fling with coworker Ali Scott; it seems innocuous, and ends quickly—or so he thinks.