Avery Bullard heads to New York City to meet with investment bankers and instructs his secretary Erica to summon an emergency board meeting. He is the president and driving force of the Tredway Corporation, a major furniture manufacturer. A short commuter flight will get him there just in time. But as he steps into a taxi, tragedy intervenes: he collapses in the street and dies, his wallet slipped away by a bystander, setting off a chain of rumors and calculations that will upend the company.
On the pavement below, George Nyle Caswell — a board member who had just left Bullard — spots what he believes is Bullard’s body. He sees a chance for easy money and rings his broker to short-sell as much Tredway stock as possible before the weekend closes, planning to buy back once word of the death pushes the price down. Yet the body goes unidentified, listed as a John Doe, which makes Caswell nervous because he cannot cover the trades if the price slips too far.
With no clear successor after Bullard’s death, the board is thrown into a scramble. Interim power falls to Loren Shaw, a driven, pushy executive who makes sweeping, unilateral moves to shore up the stock price. He releases a favorable upcoming quarterly report to present the company as stronger than it is, pursuing short-term accounting gains that could reward shareholders but threaten product quality and the company’s long-term health. Shaw also wins Caswell’s proxy by offering him unissued stock he had long coveted to cover the short sale, and he pressures Walter Dudley after a late-night encounter with Dudley’s secretary Eva Bardeman in an attempt to secure support.
Meanwhile, longtime treasurer Frederick Y. Alderson pursues Dudley’s vote but is rebuffed. A young, idealistic research vice president, Don Walling, jumps into the race and convinces Alderson he is not too green to lead. Alderson then seeks out manufacturing vice president Jesse Q. Grimm to gain his backing. Grimm, a veteran of thirty years who had planned to retire, resents the “boy wonder” Walling and resists giving up his place, even as he eyes the possibility of change.
Shaw also wins the proxy of Julia O. Tredway, the founder’s daughter, a major shareholder whose grief over the founder’s suicide and Bullard’s rejection fuels her desire to see the company reshaped — or perhaps removed from her life altogether. The emotional currents surrounding the leadership crisis heighten the tension in the room as different generations and loyalties clash.
In the emergency meeting, Walling delivers a passionate, forward-looking vision for a revitalized company built on new construction methods and a return to durable, high-quality products. One by one, Grimm, Dudley, and Julia O. Tredway are persuaded to back his plan, and when Shaw concedes, Walling is elected unanimously to steer the company toward a more principled and sustainable future. The board’s course is set, the old guard reassessing its strategies, and a new era for the Tredway Corporation begins.
