***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.**