Living paycheck to paycheck in a dingy apartment with an oblivious husband, twenty-three-year-old Shane Lacy is going through the motions of her mundane life in an opiate-induced haze when a national news story and a call from her estranged mother threaten to send her spiraling back to a past she's worked hard to forget. It's been five years since she left home, and now Shane returns to confront her asylum-worthy mother and her former best friend, Simone Barron, sole heiress to the Barron fortune, whose billionaire father has just died in prison and left secrets and scandal in his wake.

Over the course of two weeks, Shane embarks on an adventure that reveals the extreme disparities between the überwealthy and the shanty poor. From bartending at a local dive to being intoxicated by the world of the mega rich, Shane can't resist the pull of this other life, always just out of reach. To keep up with Simone, Shane finds herself under the spell of Sebastian Kane, a millionaire male siren whose powers of seduction literally leave her breathless.

As Shane puts together the pieces of her tormented past, she must answer questions about morality, dependency, loyalty, and what it means to be BORN BARRON.