Hedge fund hotshot Franc Williams has been preoccupied with gold since childhood. When all the other kids were content with their coloured Lego blocks, Franc spray-painted his ones gold. Fast forward twenty years and everything he values is gilded with the yellow metal – from his toothbrush to his Porsche.

Hired by a mysterious New York bullion firm, Franc is sent on an acquisition to Ethiopia – supposed realm of King Solomon’s mines. By chance he finds himself at an illegal goldmine in the south of the country where, in a Biblical scene, thousands of men, women, and children are digging the ground with their bare hands.

While at the mine, Franc offends a tribal healer. Although not giving her curse a passing thought, his life changes in the most spectacular and immediate way. Struck with what the Ancient Egyptians knew as ‘Midas Torment’, he begins to live the bling-bling life of his wildest dreams.

A modern-day Midas, Franc Williams embarks on a learning curve unlike any other, in which the yellow metal he so adores is resigned to near worthlessness. As all hell breaks loose, the gold obsession gives way to clarity, as Franc realises the horror of the Midas Touch.