You can’t win when you’re playing with The House’s Money. Amidst California’s rising housing bubble in early 2005, twenty-eight-year-old Matt Whiteside has just landed his dream job as a mortgage-backed securities trader at the prestigious firm of Franklin Smith in San Francisco. Driven to finally make his dream work, he quickly becomes the company’s rising star. Everything seems to be falling into place for Matt with his career and his blossoming love affair with real estate appraiser Stephanie Bernard, who hides a powerful and dangerous secret, but Matt is unprepared for what waits around the corner. Taylor Whitney, the arrogant, successful owner of the largest home-building company in Northern California, is riding the wave of the financial boom, all the while plotting with his new mistress, loan agent Janet Waller, to scam banks and the I.R.S. with phony buyers and forged documents, stepping ever deeper into criminal activity. When the housing market rapidly begins to shift into a downward-spiraling mess, on the brink of imploding, Matt struggles against falling sales and the conflicting desires of his heart when he learns that Stephanie has betrayed him. Desperate to keep his heart intact and keep his job, he realizes is one of many who are watching their American dream become an American nightmare of foreclosures, layoffs, and bankruptcies. Matt’s, Stephanie’s, and Taylor’s worlds collide as the housing bubble bursts, and each tries to struggle through the ensuing financial and personal calamities that will forever change their lives.