The rags-to-riches-to-rags story of four generations of the once fabulously wealthy American Vanderbilt family, from the birth of their founder, the commodore (Cornelius Vanderbilt) in 1794. It follows the fortunes and failures of the colourful members of the family and traces the dissipation of their immense fortune amidst the extravagance of turn-of-the-century New York society, up to the end of world war II.