The Beautiful and the Damned portrays the lives of a young, wealthy, and pleasure-seeking couple, Anthony and Gloria Patch. Anthony is heir to a massive fortune, and Gloria, a midwestern debutant, is marrying up: together they ritz it up like in classic Jazz Age style, dining and drinking wildly, going to shows, philosophizing with friends, and spending lavishly while waiting for Anthony Patch's grandfather to kick the bucket. At the novel's start, the Patch duo have it all together, and seem happy in their own solipsistic and nihilistic ways. But their prodigal ways soon get the best of them, and their lives begin to unravel.

There is a list of tag-a-long friends who fill out the ensemble of this work: Anthony's BFF, Maury Noble; a writer friend named Richard Carmel; the glitzy Joseph Bloeckman; and the young temptress Muriel. These ancillary characters provide a backdrop for the downward spiral of Anthony and Gloria, which is, above all else, tragic.