Fred Klein, rich 75-year-old San Franciscan, accidentally kills a woman the day he learns his cholesterol is high. He flees, is arrested and incarcerated two days later, bailed out, and shortly after suffers his own medical disaster. Philanthropist explores the upper crust of the City by the Bay, with a magnifying glass on its legal and medical establishments. Combining tragedy, suspense and comedy, first time novelist Larry Hill, a physician with thirty years of experience, dissects not only penny-pinching Klein but his young second wife, Jennifer, her lover Ernesto, Fred's three sons, the widower and young daughter of Fred's victim, and many others. The story reaches not only San Francisco, its hospitals, court rooms and jail, but also Africa and South America.
At the heart of this story is aging: its highs and lows, its wonders and sadness, its loneliness, the ebbing of its sexual vigor, and above all, its inexorable nature.