A celebration of the cabaret era and the magical ascent of cinema, set against the rise and fall of Berlin- "a dazzling epic [novel] of survival." (Emma Donoghue, author of Slammerkin)

The orphaned daughter of a cabaret performer, Lilly Aphrodite finds refuge at a Catholic orphanage-and a trajectory of reinvention, seduction, and danger begins. From urchin to maid, war bride to model, Lilly eventually finds her destiny as a famous silent-film star, and enters into a sweeping romance that, crossing decades and continents, becomes inextricable from the astonishing historical events unfolding around it.