In the beginning ... Jessie Dermot -- Miss Maxine Elliott -- Hartsbourne -- Maxine's war -- Courtesans and Assignations -- Winston -- A new King -- Final fling -- The lights go out over Europe -- War on the Riviera -- Return of peace -- Prince Aly Khan -- Rita Hayworth -- "A marriage has been arranged" -- Wedding of the century -- Marital troubles -- Changes -- Causes and effects -- End of an era -- Epilogue -- Postscript

The story of the group of people who lived, partied, bed-hopped and politicked at the Chateau de l'Horizon near Cannes, covering a span of forty years, from the time when Coco Chanel made southern French tans fashionable in the twenties to the death of the playboy Prince Aly Khan in 1960