East of Eden is the story of two families, the Hamilton family and the Trask family, both of whom migrate to the Salinas Valley in California. The Hamiltons are a poor family living on dry, barren land, but Adam Trask and his wife Cathy Trask are rich from inheritance and live on a fertile and rich piece of land with a large quantity of water available. But the Trasks material wealth is undermined by their moral poverty. Cathy Trask was born without a conscience, and though Adam loves her, he is blind to her evil. She only marries him because it is convenient for her at the time, but after she bears him two sons she shoots him in the shoulder and leaves.
Catherine changes her name to Kate and works her way up in a whorehouse in the city of Salinas. She manipulates the owner of the whorehouse, Faye, so effectively that Faye wills the house and all of her belongings to Catherine. Catherine then slowly poisons Faye and, when she dies, takes over the business. She becomes the owner of the most depraved and degenerate whorehouse in all of Salinas.
