The night 17 year old Delia Spencer watched the flames rise and consume what had been the pioneer town of Chicago, she couldn't imagine how much her life, her city, and her whole world was about to change. Nor would she have guessed that the agent of that change would not simply be the fire, but more so the man she met that night -- Marshall Field. Delia wouldn't see him again for several years, and by then the whole city loved Marshal Field. He had led the way in rebuilding after the fire, quickly reopening his well-known dry goods store into something the world had never seen before- a glamorous palace of a department store. He and his friends Potter Palmer, George Pullman and John Shedd threw up one stone and glass monument after another as they transformed Chicago into the economic and cultural center of the county. Field was so successful because of his famous instinct to "give the lady what she wants," and it was that charm and intensity that won Delia's heart. She met Marshall again not long after she married the rich and prominent Judge Caton's son, Arthur. She and her husband were best of friends, but between his drinking and lack of interest in women, theirs was not a marriage in the true sense. Meanwhile, Marsh had wed the beautiful and eccentric Nannie, whose high spirits all too soon descended into opium addiction. Theirs was a world of the robber barons, and they were the American royalty of their generation, living in gorgeous homes on Prairie Avenue and amidst luxurious possessions. But their private lives were riddled with scandal and heartbreak. While Delia and Marshall first turned to each other out of loneliness in their respective marriages, their friendship grew out of their shared love of the city and vision for how great it could become. Their efforts together would culminate in the World's Fair of 1893, when Chicago was transformed into the Gleaming White City. By then, Delia and Marsh were deeply in love, and stood together despite scandal and ostracism as a force against both the tragedies in their private lives and the challenges of the growing city. In late-nineteenth-century Chicago, visionary retail tycoon Marshall Field made his fortune wooing women customers with his famous motto- "Give the lady what she wants." His legendary charm also won the heart of socialite Delia Spencer and led to an infamous love affair. The night of the Great Fire, as seventeen-year-old Delia watches the flames rise and consume what was the pioneer town of Chicago, she can't imagine how much her life, her city, and her whole world are about to change.Nor can she guess that the agent of that change will not simply be the fire, but more so the man she meets that night... Leading the way in rebuilding after the fire, Marshall Field reopens his well-known dry goods store and transforms it into something the world has never seen before- a glamorous palace of a department store.He and his powerhouse coterie-including Potter Palmer and George Pullman-usher in the age of robber barons, the American royalty of their generation. But behind the opulence, their private lives are riddled with scandal and heartbreak. Delia and Marshall first turn to each other out of loneliness, but as their love deepens, they will stand together despite disgrace and ostracism, through an age of devastation and opportunity, when an adolescent Chicago is transformed into the gleaming White City of the Chicago's World's Fair of 1893.