The Job [abridged]

Ned Allen is a young, upwardly mobile, ad salesman for a successful computer magazine. Several years into his career, he's confident that he's finally left his small-town roots behind, and that the sophisticated Manhattan world he covets is his forever. His wife, Lizzie, is also flourishing at a prestigious public relations firm. Life, it seems, is just where they want it.

Until Ned is faced with a seemingly clear-cut moral choice that pulls the bottom out from under his feet. Ned's company is sold and he's suddenly and brutally fired, the circumstances surrounding his job loss rendering it impossible to land elsewhere in the industry. When a supportive yet frustrated Lizzie accepts a temporary job in Los Angeles, Ned's downward spiral is nearly complete.

Salvation appears in the unlikely form of an old high school friend who is working for Jack Ballantine, a former real estate tycoon with a shady past who has recently made a much-heralded comeback. When, against his better judgement, Ned accepts a job working for Ballantine's latest venture, an offshore private equity fund, he tells himself it's just another job. But it turns out that Ballantine has other uses for Ned...