Anna Maria Szilard lives in the world of the dying Austro-Hungarian Empire. She must choose between breaking an aristocratic code and the being with the man she loves. Margaret, her daughter, flees a terrible forced marriage to find freedom in Manhattan. Margaret, the third in this line of indomitable women, becomes a fashion designer and moves to Hollywood, where reality, ambition, and dreams mingle.

This is a saga that moves from Europe to America. It is a tale of the mores and morals of a time past, and it is a study in good and evil as each generation seeks to leave the past and find love and hope in the future of a new world.