McKinsey & Company is the most prestigious consulting company in the world, earning billions of dollars in fees from major corporations and governments who turn to it to maximize their profits and enhance efficiency. Bogdanich and Forsythe shows that often McKinsey's advice boils down to major cost-cutting, including layoffs and maintenance reductions, to drive up short-term profits, thereby boosting a company's stock price and the wealth of its executives who hire it, at the expense of workers and safety measures. Shielded by NDAs, McKinsey has escaped public scrutiny, but the authors have penetrated the veil of secrecy by following rule #1 of investigative reporting: Follow the money.

Introduction: When McKinsey comes to town -- Wealth without guilt: McKinsey's values -- Winners and losers: the inequality machine -- Playing both sides: helping government help McKinsey -- McKinsey at ICE: "We do execution, not policy" -- Befriending China's government -- Guarding the Gates of Hades: tobacco and vaping -- Turbocharging opioid sales -- "Turning a coal mine into a diamond" -- Toxic debt: McKinsey on Wall Street -- Allstate's secret slides: "Winning will be a zero-sum game" -- "The Enron Astros" -- "Clubbing seals": the South Africa debacle -- Serving the Saudi state -- Chumocracy: half a century at Britain's NHS.