So! Peter Krause is Nick George, who"s taken over his recently deceased dad"s position as consigliere to the Darlings, a Kennedy-esque family with Donald Sutherland at its head. Donald"s character is Tripp; he"s married to Letitia (Jill Clayburgh), and they have five children: Patrick (Billy Baldwin), who"s the New York Attorney General; Brian (Glenn Fitzgerald), a volatile, philandering priest; Karen (Natalie Zea), a multiple divorcée who may still be in love with Nick; Juliet (Samaire Armstrong), a spoiled Daddy"s girl; and Jeremy (Seth Gabel), a gambling, drug-using ne"er-do-well. Now that you have a little background, I"ll go in order.
At the beginning, Nick watches as the wreckage of a plane is pulled from the water; he tells us that his dad, Dutch, worked for the Darlings when Nick was a kid, and it was hard on him and his family. In flashback, we see his mom leave his dad as Nick tells us that he promised that he would never work for the Darlings. Then two weeks ago, his dad"s plane crashed, and everything changed. At the funeral, the Darlings are treated like rock stars while Nick needs their help just to get in. We learn that Nick is well-liked by all the Darlings except for Brian, who resents both his and dad"s involvement in the family. After the funeral, Nick has a drink with Tripp; he tells his wife that Tripp wants to start a fund in Dutch"s name, but really, Tripp wants Nick to be their family attorney. Nick is more into being a sort of lawyer version of Robin Hood, but when Tripp offers him ten million a year to give to charitable causes on top of his salary and not having to give up his practice, Nick accepts the job. He"s psyched, and he tells his wife so, but the fact that Nick is going to continually be putting out the Darlings" fires becomes immediately apparent: Jeremy has some issues with a yacht he won in a poker game, which ends up getting him arrested for human trafficking; Karen hits on Nick while on an appointment with her fiancé; Brian wants to get his illegitimate son into an exclusive private school; and Juliet has to deal with the fact that her dad bought her way into a play.
Nick does his best to deal with all of this, but what he doesn"t know is that Juliet takes a bunch of pills while he"s busy getting Jeremy out of jail. That night, at the Darling parents" anniversary party, Letitia and Tripp get choked up over memories of Dutch, while Patrick gets a quick visit from Candis Cayne, with whom he"s clearly having an affair. Patrick summons Nick for a damage-control conference, but on his way, Nick gets sidelined by Karen, who"s distraught about her fiancé. This leads to Nick"s wife thinking there"s something going on, which in turn leads to Nick having a fight with Brian, but all these distractions are forgotten when Juliet"s overdose is discovered.
This leads Nick to quit his job, but as he leaves, Patrick catches him and gets him to go for a ride. As it happens, Candis Cayne is a tranny (...no, I mean her character) and Patrick wants Nick to pay her off and tell her it"s over, but Nick refuses. Next, Karen summons him and tells him that she"s learned that Brian paid a large sum to an airplane mechanic, which is suspicious, given the circumstances of Dutch"s death, and also because Dutch and Letitia were SLEEPING TOGETHER FOR FORTY YEARS. In the last act, we see the plane dragged from the water, and then a detective tells Nick that since it was submerged for two weeks, any evidence from it is going to be sketchy. She hands Nick a briefcase retrieved from a lockbox on the plane, saying it contains personal effects of his dad"s. Tripp then shows up and offers Nick his condolences while getting him to take his job back. As Nick flies off, we see the Darling children: Juliet leaves home; Brian"s kid"s mother dumps their son off on him; Patrick lies in bed with Candis Cayne; Freddy details his plans to spend Karen"s money. In VO, Nick says he"s going to find out who killed his father. "And when I do, they"re gonna pay." More than ten million? SWEET!