Irascible and domineering millionaire Walter McCoy marries the beautiful, but shady and duplicitous Karen Petrie. Walter's son Steve automatically becomes smitten with Karen while both Walter's daughter Cynthia and loyal housekeeper Sarah suspect that something is up. This provokes a tangled web of deception, infidelity, and even murder.

When the President's plane mysteriously disappears with him on board, it is left to the seemingly weak Vice President to try to avert a nuclear exchange with the Chinese.