When his father dies in a mysterious plane crash, lawyer Nick George reluctantly accepts an offer from billionaire Tripp Darling to take over Nick's father's job as chief counsel for the obscenely wealthy and influential Darling family. In the course of his hectic first day as the Darlings' personal lawyer, Nick discovers some of the various legal and illegal needs of the Darling family's five adult children.
Nick tries to find out who killed his father with the help of airplane mechanic and Darling aficionado Norman Exley. Juliet sulks in her new luxury hotel digs and refuses to participate in an important high-end photo shoot for the family involving trained lions.
A blackmailer surfaces, demanding ransom for a sex tape featuring one of the Darlings which puts Nick in full damage control mode. Meanwhile, Patrick is forced to break off his affair with Carmelita, plunging him into deep despair.
Nick travels to a vineyard in Italy to meet with a spy who may know more about the death of his father. Nick appeases his wife Lisa's annoyance with his focus on the Darlings by taking her with him.
Nick finally has a meeting with Tripp's nemesis, billionaire Simon Elder, and finds he has more in common with Simon than he imagined. Since Darling twins Juliet and Jeremy are feuding over Jeremy's affair with Natalie Kimpton, they decide to throw separate birthday parties for themselves; each budgeted at $1 million dollars.
A high-stakes poker game on a yacht pits Simon Elder against Tripp. If Nick can convince Tripp to bet his most prized property, Elder will give Nick the dirt on his father's death.
Karen gets a cold feet about marrying Freddy. This becomes a cause of unanticipated drama as her wedding day arrives. Lisa suspects that Nick is the reason why Brian Jr.
Nick and Lisa are looking forward to spending their Thanksgiving holiday together with no Darlings. But all that changes when Tripp demands that Nick set up a face-to-face meeting at the family's country house with a skeptical Simon Elder.
Secrets are revealed through a series of flashbacks regarding Nick's father, Dutch, about his affair with Letitia and his relationships with Nick and Tripp. Sparks fly between Simon and Karen. Brian is arrested for trying to bribe the arbitrator into awarding him custody of his son. Sofa presses Jeremy to show her his apartment, as he scrambles to keep up his charade of poverty and enlists an unlikely ally -- Lisa George.
Nick learns Simon and Karen are secretly seeing each other, but he refuses to admit why it truly bothers him. Karen bails on the family tradition of watching "The Nutcracker" in order to accept Simon's invitation to meet a mysterious person.