Zachary Arlen Post is an up-and-coming editor at magazine, one of the glossiest jewels in the crown of Versailles Publishing. The son of socialite parents, Zack was educated at the right schools, is an excellent golfer.... Or maybe not. He is really Allen Zachary Post from Long Island, a guy with a background too downmarket for someone who wants to move up the ladder at Despite his pose, Zack's ascent up the masthead has stalled, and his love life is complicated by two women: a cool English beauty with a hyphenated name and an eager, sweet-natured intern Zack could bring home to Mom. With the arrival of Mark Larkin, a determined, Harvard-educated editor who knows all the right moves, Zack's prospects for promotion grow dimmer. Mark seems to be the source of all of Zack's woes. Zack wishes Mark were dead. Ted Heller has written a biting, outrageous story of how the rats that battle for dominance amid New York's skyscrapers — or "slabs" — survive and triumph, and the price they must pay to win.