At the age of sixteen, Sean O’Reilly started over in America after the influenza epidemic of 1919 killed his entire family back in Ireland. It has taken three years, but he’s built a new life for himself in Manhattan, rising from Bell Hop to Room Service Boy at the Astraea, a hotel for the wealthy. He loves his job, and life is good, until the fateful day his manager discovers a secret— a secret that could ruin Sean and everything he’s worked for.

Among the richest men in New York City, one Harrison Devaux, a cranky recluse, keeps secrets of his own in the penthouse of the Astraea. No one knows why he never leaves his suite, but rumors circulate about his constant state of drunkenness and his willy-nilly firing of employees.

Sean is assigned to attend Mr. Devaux, and events don’t go well when the two men first meet. But Sean soon finds out that Mr. Devaux isn’t exactly as the rumors portrayed. Maybe a Room Service Boy and a billionaire businessman have more in common than one might expect.