Guy has made it: From the poverty of the French countryside, he has climbed to the heights of the fashion world in 1980s New York. Men fall one after another for his beauty, making him the biggest attraction of Fire Island in the summer. Like a modern Dorian Gray, he seems never to age and is showered with gifts by older admirers—until time finally catches up with him and changes his life forever. In his elegant yet witty novel, Edmund White revels in the magic of beauty, only to penetrate its surface in the next moment and explore its power—the power to fascinate, to deceive, to dominate.