A powerful, hard-hitting adult story of murder and suspense by one of America's foremost novelists, which since its publication in 1954, has been made into several very successful feature films. A young man, finding out that his girlfriend is pregnant, cold-bloodedly adjusts his plans for marrying into a hugely wealthy and influential industrialist family. Throughout his life he has used his intelligence, good manners, charm, striking good looks, and as a last resort, his ruthless and violent strength, to achieve what he wants, and he refuses to be thwarted now.