In 1957, the Banning family leads a life of privilege, wealth and domestic unhappiness. At the head of this California dynasty is oil magnate Victor Banning, a man of great power and even greater obsessions, who is determined to teach his son and grandsons to be predators in his dog-eat-dog world. Jimmy Peyton is a rising star in the music business, a young man with a bright future and no connection to the Bannings, until the fateful night their cars collide on a Los Angeles street, changing the lives and future of two innocent families. Laurel Peyton, Jimmy's daughter, has lived her entire life in the shadow of grief. Though her mother, Kathryn, struggled to keep her daughter safe and secluded after the terrible accident that ruined their family, she cannot guard against the one danger she never expected: Love. In 1970, Victor's grandsons, Jud and Cale, meet the beautiful and spirited Laurel, and these two families cross paths once again, this time on a passionate course that pits brother against brother and mother against daughter—a clash of wills that gradually draws them all closer to the truth of their tragic connection.