"I feel the need, for the sake of my sanity, to begin this very personal memoir immediately - before the future becomes the present and the present becomes the past. Even the recent past is a fragile entity, more than a little at the mercy of memory." Danny Devereux is a shy and introverted cabaret performer with an astounding talent for mimicry, a raucous and controlling alter-ego named Stella and a preoccupation with curtains. He has been working the London circuit for years when he unwittingly acquires the ultra-ambitious Veronica 'Roni' Bedford as his manager then wife. Her relentless drive propels him to stellar heights of television success. One television series leads to another, but all is not harmonious in this celebrity household, even before a major scandal hits the headlines. In self-induced exile in a luxurious Thames-side apartment, Danny looks back on the power games involved in his reluctant but meteoric rise to fame and spectacular fall from grace as he engineers a plan to vindicate himself. Will he succeed in his attempt to make appearance triumph over reality?