Birth of a Saleswoman
When we meet Campbell Grice-Hutchinson, he is in a deep professional and personal rut. He loathes his narcissistic boss in the House of Lords, Sir Laurent Oswald, and his mindless role as a lowly researcher who is more often treated as an assistant than an economic policy wiz. He also resents his upper crust family, particularly his older brother Aubrey, a stockbroker, and his distant banker father who disowned him over political differences. When he isn’t working for Laurent, Campbell spends his highly regimented days setting rules for denying himself what he really desires: a fulfilling career as a liberal journalist, friendship, and love.
On a particularly depressing evening, Campell receives an unexpected invitation from Laurent’s Hollywood publicist, Jill Ritter, who has been trying to help Laurent break into the American market as a spy thriller novelist. She and Laurent- who is “busy on vacation”- agree that Campbell should go on Laurent’s behalf to a networking event in the foreign land of North Dakota hosted by a wealthy, conservative American congressman. At the event, Jill hopes to introduce Campbell to her personal family friend, Robert “Bobby” Targill, a liquor chain magnate and aspiring novelist.
Campell agrees to represent Laurent and chat with Bobby about his novel at what he thinks is a harmless, superficial party. However, he doesn’t realize that Bobby has orchestrated the meeting with Jill’s help as a means of initiating a comical shakedown of Laurent. Bobby reveals that he knows about Laurent’s involvement in crypto bribes and illicit sexual affairs. He corners an unsuspecting Campbell and proposes a deal. He will leverage his American political connections to support Jill’s business, win Laurent a Pulitzer Prize, and launch Laurent’s second career as a novelist in America in exchange for Laurent’s help in lowering U.K.’s retaliatory tariffs on liquor exports as a member of the U.K. Treasury. He also reveals that he’s read Campbell’s secret left-wing political column, whose revelation, could lose Campbell his job.
After a conversation with his status obsessed mother, Campbell reluctantly reconsiders Bobby’s offer, now including a generous payout that could cover him for a year if he were to quit his job. A follow-up breakfast meeting, however, ends in Campbell refusing to accept money from Bobby and escaping back to the U.K.
Unfortunately, Campbell returns to London only to learn that the Exchequer’s office computer system was hacked over the weekend and that accusations of various politicians’ financial/sexual crimes and inappropriate (i.e. racist, sexist) behaviors have become a major national scandal. Campbell barely has time to panic before he’s presented with a “termination” contract and ominously warned about speaking on the record in any investigations into Laurent’s office.
Fearing for his reputational safety, Campbell- who wasn’t aware of Laurent’s possible involvement in the scandal- decides (with Jill’s advice) to go on the run and returns to America to stay with the one friend he made on his previous visit, Jill’s hired driver, Uri. While on his flight to Bismark, Campbell discovers that the “scandal” was a hoax perpetrated by a disgruntled former political aide. He nonetheless decides to continue with his unknown adventure rather than go back home.
In America, Campbell finally confronts Jill who shares yet another unexpected message from Bobby. Bobby offers to give Campbell a job as a property sitter for his newest aquisition- a luxury vacation cabin on a ranch- for the summer while he looks a new position. Campbell officially moves to North Dakota and instantly finds himself drawn into an uneasy connection with Bobby’s seemingly idyllic nuclear family that includes Bobby’s wife, Diane, and their depressed teenage son, Blake. Campbell also begins to explore his own political curiosities by volunteering and attending government protests with Uri. He soon befriends Uri’s partner in crime, a local ex-felon and activist, Jaxson, who tells Campbell about the local urban legend surrounding the land on which Bobby’s ranch sits.
Jaxson also introduces Campbell to another activist friend, local police detective Ruth Wainwright, who has been assigned to a case involving the mass killing of various families who lived in a trailer community that was located on Bobby’s land. She and Campbell begin as uncertain acquaintances but eventually form a bond as they uncover secrets related to Bobby’s past that leads to romantic tension. By the summer’s end, Campbell decides to stay America and obtain a work visa by and starting a non-profit venture with Jaxson. He also feels a brotherly connection to Blake and offers to support him as he enters rehab.
However, just as Campbell settles into his new life, Blake’s depression spikes and he is thrown out of the house by an increasingly paranoid Bobby. The father and son end up in a physical confrontation over Bobby’s history that leaves Bobby and Cheryl shot dead and Blake injured. Blake calls the one person he trusts, Campbell, to seek advice. Campbell fears that Blake, at sixteen, will be tried as an adult murder suspect and turns himself in to the police as Blake’s accomplice after the fact, only to learn that Blake lied about his use of deadly force for self-defense and happens to be involved in an alt-right gang.
Ultimately, Ruth, who is now assigned to Blake’s case, pushes her colleagues to give Campbell a polygraph that exonerates him. Despite being cleared of wrongdoing, Campbell decides to go back home to London one last time to attend his mother’s birthday. He is given the opportunity to finally confront Aubrey and his father as well as Laurent, who admits that he got away with bribes among other crimes. Campbell formally leaves behind the family that never loved him, his criminal boss, and his old identity as an underling supporting a corrupt government institution. He makes the move once again back to Uri’s condo, begins a relationship with Ruth, and works on a business plan with Jaxon.