A portrayal of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby novel, where a Midwesterner Nick Carraway is lured into a world of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Soon enough, Carraway will see through the cracks of Gatsby's rich lifestyle, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.

The story

The film starts with a shot of the flashing green light in East Egg, Long Island, Nick says how his father told him to always see the good in others. He is seen in the Perkins Sanitarium talking to a doctor, whose records indicate that Nick is there due to his alcoholism, along with other things. Nick adds that there was only one person who he saw good in, Jay Gatsby.

Then we are taken back where Wall Street was booming, and bootleggers were in doing well because the alcohol ban. Nick moves to a cottage on Long Island in West Egg, he was full of ambition as he started working as a broker for Wall Street after originally wanting to be a writer. The cottage was next door to Gatsby's mansion.

Nick goes across the bay to visit his cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan, who went to Yale with Nick. Daisy introduces Nick to Jordan Baker, a golfer. Over dinner, we see Tom is pretty arrogant and racist, commenting on the rise of the colored empire. He gets a phone call, and Jordan tells Nick that Tom is having an affair. Later, Nick walks with Daisy. Nick asks about her daughter, and Daisy mentions she is glad she had a girl and hopes she can be a fool, because, that's the best thing a girl in this world can be. Nick goes home and notices a figure standing on the pier and looking and reaching toward the green light, Nick thinks this is Gatsby.