Madeleine Talmage Force is just seventeen when she attracts the attention of John Jacob "Jack" Astor. Madeleine is beautiful, intelligent, and solidly upper-class, but the Astors are in a league apart. Jack's mother was the Mrs. Astor, American royalty and New York's most formidable socialite. Jack is dashing and industrious -- a hero of the Spanish-American war, an inventor, and a canny businessman. Despite their twenty-nine-year age difference and the scandal of Jack's recent divorce, Madeleine falls headlong into love -- and becomes the press's favorite target.