Few people would consider the department store business to be a dangerous profession. Similarly, not many people would think that a skinny kid from the streets of D.C. would have any fashion sense.
It's 1979, Jimmy Carter is president, and Rosenbloom & Starr is a department store empire in which Tom "Crash" Crandall has worked his way up to become floor manager at the flagship store where the wives of congressmen, senators, and power brokers shop. It's the busiest time of the year and he knows there is something terribly wrong with the way the goods are flowing—or to put it another way, not flowing— into his department. Where were the backup orders? What the heck were those buyers doing up there on the seventh floor?
Crash has no idea that the problem he's observing is an offshoot of a hostile takeover attempt being perpetrated by Associated Department Stores of America, a villainous outfit that has been swallowing up other department store chains across the country. CEO Gino Starr knows, however, and he isn't about to let Rosenbloom & Starr be torn apart by ruthless raiders who would destroy what he has built from humble beginnings. Associated stops at nothing to accomplish the takeover, including brutal attacks and grisly murders. What Gino doesn't know is that Associated's vicious dealings are tied to an international crime syndicate that has infiltrated our own government. Crash is thrust into the fray simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and to say he earns his shot at promotion into the buying office would be an understatement.