A high-stakes drama set in the world of gambling, where a clever but morally conflicted roulette player, Alex Joski, joins forces with a desperate woman battling debt. As they pursue an “unfailing system” to beat the casino, their alliance is tested by jealousy, mistrust, and the reappearance of the woman’s troublesome former lover.

In Genève, bookseller and publisher Axel Thorpe catches willful, rich 16-year-old Sibylle Ashby shoplifting. She brags about her writing, so he challenges her to produce a book. She writes an erotic novel that Thorpe publishes anonymously, and it becomes a best seller. She also tries to capture the love of this 40-year-old publisher but he drops her for her older sister.