Beryl Markham was brought up by the Kipsiquis on her father's Kenyan farm in the white pioneering era, and was left to the vicissitudes of bush life. Her unconventional upbringing vested in her a freedom to which few other women of her time could aspire. She acquired fame with her transatlantic solo flight in 1936, and notoriety with her three marriages and legion affairs, involving at one time Edward, Prince of Wales, and his brother, the Duke of Gloucester. But these were passing fancies compared to her passion for Denys Finch Hatton, the gentleman hunter portrayed by Robert Redford in Out of Africa, whom she pursued for nine years in fierce competition with Karen Blixen. Drawing on diaries, letters, interviews, and her own long association with Beryl Markham, the author sets out to unravel her complexities and to tell a true story of courage, rivalry, sexual intrigue, and revenge.