A novel, a saga of the di Martini family beginning with Michael, the heroic Italian general with ties to the ruling Bourbon French kings deposed by Garibaldi--and his brother Antonio, the steadfast if reluctant priest--their women, their politics and the musical connection leading to the American Civil War actress, Susan Lowell. Their stories are told by Ann di Martini who risks her job as a contemporary, non-fiction editor to create a novel drawn from her father's memoirs and her mother' diaries. It is up to Ann to survive her divorce and her affair with a well known actor. It falls to her to try to provide a powerful future for her family in today's story-telling kingdoms ruled by agents, theater, television and movie producers and prove there is more to a family's survival than getting through the night just to face another Dawn in a Timid Sky.