Clay Conover was a middle school history teacher barely covering half the rent on the beat-up old house he shared with his wise-cracking, counterculture teacher friend. Recently dumped by his girlfriend because he “just wasn’t marriage material,” he was beginning to wonder at what point just hanging out, drinking cheap beer and living on the fringe stopped being cool and started being…pathetic?

Meanwhile, Clay’s old high school lacrosse buddy owned a mortgage brokerage. He and his crew of former preachers, gym managers and car salesmen were making sick money selling subprime home mortgages.

It was 2006. The real estate market was on fire with no end in sight, and Clay, feeling he needed to make a move, decided to join in.

And his entire life changed.

Practically overnight.

More than he could ever have imagined.

But bubbles always burst, eventually…And then you’re left with…?

Experience the end of the real estate bubble through Clay’s meteoric rise in a high-flying mortgage industry permeated by smoke and mirrors, and fueled by an image of the American Dream distorted by excess and greed.