Dreiser started writing his manuscript in 1911, and the following year published the first part of his lengthy work as The Financier.

[1] The second part appeared in 1914 as The Titan; the third volume of his Trilogy of Desire was also Dreiser's final novel, The Stoic (1947).

In Philadelphia, Frank Cowperwood, whose father is a banker, makes his first money passing by an auction sale; he successfully bids for seven cases of Castile soap, which he sells to a grocer the same day with a profit of over 70 percent.

Over the years, he starts investing and misusing municipal funds with the aid of the City Treasurer, George Stener.

However, politicians from the Republican Party, who themselves often stoop to bribery and misuse of city funds, use him as a scapegoat for their own corrupt practices.