The setting in F. Scott Fitzgerald's tragedy is the hedonism of the Jazz Age on prosperous Long Island, near New York City. The plot revolves around first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with the enigmatic multi-millionaire, Jay Gatsby, who throws lavish parties yet does not partake in them and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan, who is married to Tom Buchanan, a former Yale football star whom Nick knew during his college days. The couple has recently relocated from Chicago to a mansion directly across the bay from Gatsby's estate, while Nick rents a bungalow next to Gatsby's luxurious estate. This sets the stage for Nick's involvement with his neighbours. The story was inspired by Fitzgerald's youthful romance and life-long obsession with socialite Ginevra King whose upper-class family dis­couraged Fitzgerald's courtship of their daughter.

The Great Gatsby provides a critical social history of prohibition-era America. This period is known for its jazz music, economic prosperity, flapper culture, libertine mores, rebellious youth, and ubiquitous speakeasies. The societal developments in the 1920s range from simple details like petting in automobiles to broader themes such as bootlegging as the illicit source of Gatsby's fortune.