The novel’s central character, Leo Plumb, sets the plot in motion and creates the narrative’s central conflict through the car accident he causes. A once-successful and prominent figure in Manhattan, it is Leo’s reputation (and, by extension, the Plumb family name) that is protected by buying the silence of both Matilda and Leo’s wife, Victoria. Leo’s unhappiness and discontent likely lead him to rely on drugs and alcohol. He openly admits that his relationship with Victoria has soured, and that divorce is inevitable. Leo previously thrived as a Manhattan socialite—a position he has reached after his successful business venture with SpeakEasy media, a company he built himself. In his success, however, Leo has been unscrupulous in taking advantage of others and unapologetically not returning the favor of aiding in the career of those with whom he has worked side by side, such as Paul Underwood. The bridges Leo has burned come back to haunt him when he finds himself penniless and, it seems, no longer in the limelight of Manhattan’s elite. His fall from grace leaves him powerless, and those he has previously wronged—such as Paul Underwood and Nathan Chowdhury—have gone on to have successful careers that are not indebted to Leo.