J.B. Ball, a rich financier, gets fed up with his free-spending family. He takes his wife's just-bought (very expensive) sable coat and throws it out the window, it lands on poor hard-working girl Mary Smith. But it isn't so easy to just give away something so valuable, as he soon learns.
The 100-year story of the iconic restaurant chain Horn & Hardart, the inspiration for Starbucks, where generations of Americans ate and drank coffee together at communal tables. From the perspective of former customers, we watch a business climb to its peak success and then grapple with fast food in a forever changed America.
An heir of a vast fortune is deeply in debt because he spends faster than his very generous trust fund allows. There is a battle of wills between his selfish spendthrift was and the money manager which is is forced/tricked into appointing.
The installation of a vending machine near a family's house causes some problems.