Born into a family blessed by genius and plagued by tragedy, Oona lived in the shadows from an early age. Her father, Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, was an alcoholic and distant man who abandoned Oona when she was a child and later disinherited her. Her eccentric mother, a writer, was loving yet often absent. Her older half brother, Eugene O'Neill Jr., was a brilliant Ivy League scholar; her brother, Shane, was addicted to drugs. Both committed suicide at an early age.

Drawing on extensive research and eyewitness accounts from those who knew her well, this book reveals how Oona yearned for her father's love her entire life and, for most of her years, managed to evade the family curse of drink and despair. In compelling detail, it relates how as a girl she turned her back on Manhattan's cafe society and went to Hollywood to become an actress. There, the eighteen-year-old starlet met and fell in love with the world's adored King of Comedy.

At fifty-four, Charlie Chaplin was thirty-six years her senior, had been married three times, and had had a steady stream of mistresses. To the surprise of the world, they wed. To the dismay of gossipmongers, theirs was a loving marriage blessed with eight children that lasted until Charlie's death in 1977.