A high society fraud and a scrappy swindler team up to take down Gilded Age New York in this tale of intrigue, drama, and female friendship. The Grand Duchess Marie Charlotte Antonie of Linsbourg—a war-torn country known for its wealth of emeralds—has taken Gilded Age high society by storm. Little does the upper crust know that this "deposed duchess" is actually con artist Alice, a vengeful young woman with her sights set on the five ruthless robber barons who destroyed her father and left her family in shambles. Alice's long con plan finally clicks into place when she meets scrappy magician's assistant Cora, a drifter with lofty aspirations of her own, a malleable young lady who proves the perfect debutante pawn to lure in Alice's final, and otherwise unattainable, target. With the help of insider and society maestro Ward McAllister, among others, Alice and Cora launch into the social season of 1883, scheming their way through grand balls, private dinners, and opera nights, ensnaring Alice's targets one by one. But as they hurtle toward their ultimate swindle, a sprawling orchestrated scheme at their fabricated embassy to rob their targets blind, pressures close in from all sides. Mutiny within the ranks, hidden moles, crises of conscience . . . This sting is sure to be the event of the season. Or else ruin Alice and Cora both.