Temptress, goddess, star - Alyssia Del Mar was all of these to the millions of movie fans who worshiped her extravagant allure and irresistible sensuality. But to the people whose paths crossed hers, she was something more: a child of poverty whose innocent and overwhelming need to be loved drove her to the top - and made her the pan in a family's bid for absolute power.

To Desmond Cordiner, feared patriarch, who presided over Magnum Pictures, Alyssia's magnificent presence could save a studio - and his skin - before stardom destroyed her... To Barry Cordiner, Desmond's nephew, she as the perfect wife, until her own success outdistanced his... To Hap, Desmond's charismatic son and the love of Alyssia's life, she could be the inspiration that would make him the greatest director of hi generation - unless their scandalous affair totally destroyed them first... To Beth Gold, Barry's twin sister, she became an object of hatred after a family tragedy destroyed their friendship... To P.D. Zaffarano, the superagent cousin with enough mob connections to topple the family empire, she was his ticket to the top and a necessary ally...

Spanning the sixties to the eighties, moving from migrant workers' shacks in the San Joaquin Valley to palatial Beverly Hills estates, from a remote film location in Kenya to a luxurious villa overlooking Lake Como in Italy - here is a sweeping novel about five members of a legendary family and their effect n the eternally vulnerable woman who was known as the last movie star.