It is set during the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and follows a young trader named Charlie Wales.

Charlie Wales is a fresh new trader that is involved with Silverbirch, a lucrative hedge fund.

He's intrigued by the seductive Vero, a beautiful French woman, and by the lure of easy money and the excitement of a seemingly endless supply of drugs.

However, as things proceed and Charlie sinks deeper into a life of excess and depravity, he discovers that this may end up leading to his own ruin- and he may not be able to extract himself before it happens.

[4] The Scotsman and The Guardian both gave mostly negative reviews of the work; the reviewer writing as The Guardian wrote that "This Bleeding City conjures some voyeuristic curiosity as a novel of our age, but I suspect it lacks the perspective to outlive it.