In June 1926, Rome was the scene of a spectacular social event. A fascist wedding was celebrated, with Mussolini as the best man. The bride was Lilliana Weinman, a celebrated American opera singer from a Jewish industrialist family, and the groom was Attilio Teruzzi, a highly decorated war veteran, participant in the March on Rome, ruthless leader of the Blackshirts, and archetype of the new strong man.

Soon, the virile husband felt his honor wounded by his wife's independence and demanded a divorce—only his wife and the Catholic Church had no intention of agreeing to this. The forced marriage increasingly became a problem for the rising Teruzzi, as the first anti-Semitic laws of the fascist state loomed on the horizon.

With references to literature, fashion, urban worlds, and romantic relationships, the renowned historian Victoria de Grazia unfolds an opulent, captivatingly narrated social epic that makes the cultural climate of the era tangible. She illustrates how Mussolini's movement pushed its revolution into interpersonal relationships. And she vividly depicts the conditions for the rise and fall of the perfect fascist: the development of an ordinary man in a time of extremes.