Cruising on his yacht off the rugged coast of Corsica, Harry Stanford, one of the world's wealthiest men, drowns under mysterious circumstances. In a chain of events that reverberates around the globe, a beautiful young woman appears at the family gathering following the funeral in Boston, claiming to be the tycoon's daughter and thus heir to a share of his estate.

Toby Temple is a superstar, the world's funniest man. He gets any woman that he wants, but under the superstar image is a lonely man. Jill Castle is a sensuous starlet. She has a dark and mysterious past and has an ambition even greater than Toby's. Together they rule Hollywood.

A young American au pair, Charlotte Clancy, vanishes without a trace in Mexico City. The case is left cold, but its legacy will be devastating. A decade later, LA is shaken by a spate of violent murders. Psychologist Nikki Roberts is the common link between the victims, her patients at the heart of this treacherous web. When someone makes an attempt on Nikki’s life, it’s clear she is a marked woman.

Tracy Whitney is on top of the world. She is young, beautiful, intelligent, and about to marry into wealth and glamour until, betrayed by her own innocence, she finds herself in prison, framed by a ruthless mafia gang and abandoned by the man she loves. Beaten and broken, but surviving with stunning ingenuity, Tracy emerges from her savage ordeal determined to avenge herself from those who have destroyed her life. From New Orleans to London to Paris to Madrid to Amsterdam, Tracy plays for the highest stakes in a deadly game.

Kate Blackwell is the symbol of success, the beautiful woman who parlayed her inheritance into an international conglomerate. Winner of a unique position among the wealthy and world-renowned, she is also a survivor as indomitable as her father, who returned from the edge of death to wrench a fortune in diamonds from the hard South African soil. Kate surveys the family she has manipulated, dominated and loved; the fair and the grotesque, the mad and the mild, the good and the evil - her winnings in life.