It is the summer of 1975. An Onassis-like tycoon is nearing the end of his life. When he finds out that his daughter, with whom he's having a problematic relationship, is pregnant by a man he does not approve of, he has a birthday party for her on his private island, secretly intending to persuade her to end the pregnancy: a doctor is standing by to perform the procedure on the spot. The story starts on the morning of the party before the guests arrive and ends the following day when all the guests are gone. The novel intersperses the events that take place before, during and after the party with flashbacks to the tycoon's rise to wealth and fame, from his childhood in Asia Minor in the 1920s to old age, via Buenos Aires, New York, London and Paris.