Founders of the world’s first major soft-drink company, Houghton and Annabelle Forster raise their four children with the expectation that they’ll one day become world leaders. The burden of greatness falls early on eldest son Montgomery, a handsome and successful politician who has never recovered from the horrors and heartbreak of the Great War. His younger siblings Ramsey and Lance are rivals not only in wit and beauty, but in their utter carelessness with the lives and hearts of others. Their brother Harold, as gentle and caring as the twins can be cruel, is slowed by a mental disability --- and later generations seem equally plagued by misfortune, forcing Houghton to seriously consider who should control the company after he’s gone.