Spanning six generations in the lives of the fictional
MacGregor/Blackwell family, the critically acclaimed novel spent four
weeks at number one on the New York Times Best Seller List,and was later adapted into a 1984 television miniseries.
Plot
Kate Blackwell, matriarch of the Blackwell family and head of her
father's multinational business empire, Kruger-Brent Ltd., celebrates
her ninetieth birthday with her family and friends, but is more focused
on the ghosts of her past who are there. She recalls how the company
started, and the story is told through flashback through different
members of Kate's family.
Jamie
A hundred years ago, Kate's father Jamie McGregor leaves Scotland for
Klipdrift, South Africa to find wealth by mining diamonds. He makes a
contract with a local Dutch merchant, Salomon Van Der Merwe, but is
double-crossed after nearly dying to find an untapped diamond mine only
to find out that the contract gives Van Der Merwe the entire mine while
Jamie is paid minimum wage for his services. Jamie tries to protest, but
he is beaten and left for dead in the desert. He is saved by Van Der
Merwe's servant, Banda, who wants revenge on Van Der Merwe for raping
his sister, who died giving birth to Van Der Merwe's child. They manage
to pull off a dangerous heist and take millions worth of diamonds, and
Jamie returns to Klipdrift under the persona Ian Travis, a widowed
millionaire looking for business opportunities. He catches Van Der
Merwe's attention and convinces him to let his daughter, Margaret, tour
him around Klipdrift, and Jamie seduces her and impregnates her. When
Margaret announces her pregnancy, Jamie reveals his true identity and
refuses to marry her, shaming her conservative father. Margaret is
kicked out, eventually giving birth to Jamie Jr. Meanwhile, Van Der
Merwe becomes a social outcast and heavily borrows from the local bank,
not knowing that Jamie owns it. Jamie tricks Van Der Merwe to borrow
heavily, and then calls in all his debts when he knows Van Der Merwe
cannot afford to pay. Jamie later finds out that Van Der Merwe committed
suicide, but feels an empty victory.
Jamie's company Kruger-Brent Ltd., thrives in South Africa. He hires
David Blackwell for his ambition and determination which mirrors Jamie's
own. In an attempt to make Jamie love her, Margaret abandons her son
with him, and Jamie slowly loves his son. Margaret twists Jamie's arm to
marry her, threatening him with leaving for America with their son, and
while her reputation is restored, Jamie acts cold towards her and
openly keeps a prostitute named Margaret as a mistress. After a drunken
fight with the mistress Margaret, Jamie mistakenly apologizes to his
wife Margaret and has sex with her, resulting in their second child,
Kate. Banda warns Jamie that the Bantu rebellion may harm his family and
steals one-year-old Kate from her crib during a riot in order to
protect her. However, he did not reach Jamie Jr. in time, and he was
left to die in the desert. The news of this causes Jamie to have a
stroke, and dies after five months of paralysis; Margaret runs
Kruger-Brent with Blackwell's aid. During the rebellion, Margaret and
Kate are taken as prisoners-of-war due to being South African citizens,
and Kate realizes the need for power so she will never feel helpless.
Kate and David, and Kruger-Brent Ltd.
Kate grows up falling in love with Blackwell, despite their large age
difference and his view of her as nothing more than a child, and vows
that she will marry him one day. After her mother's death, she decides
to get serious about running the company and goes to business school.
Upon her return, she learns that Blackwell is engaged and is planning to
leave Kruger-Brent for his fiance's family business, and secretly buys
out his fiance's company, knowing that David hates sell-outs. She
seduces him and they marry after two months.
At the beginning of World War I, Kate capitalizes on the war by
planning to sell bullets and weapons, but is stopped by Blackwell, who
is against it. He begins to realize Kate's obsession with the company,
and enlists for the war and is gone for four years. Kate decides to push
through with her idea when she sees the opportunity being wasted, and
when David arrives, he is annoyed by Kate's actions. Kate becomes
pregnant, and she realizes her own obsession when she is happier about
good news about the company than a married life with David and their
upcoming son. Two months before the baby's birth, David is killed in a
mine explosion and Kate gives birth to Anthony "Tony" Blackwell.
Tony
With no one to stop her, Kate pours all her attention to Kruger-Brent
and makes it a global success. She is a demanding mother to her son,
expecting nothing but the best from him, but is disappointed to see that
he stutters in her presence and would rather go into art than business.
After World War II, Tony goes to art school in France and begins dating
Dominique, a French model. During an exhibit, Kate pays-off a renowned
French critic to bash Tony's work, despite his honest opinion that Tony
could have been successful, in order to end Tony's career and push him
to take over the business. Tony eventually finds out that Dominique is a
model from one of Kruger-Brent's agencies and has been spying on him
for his mother, and Tony gains the courage to stand up against her and
leave.
Kate manipulates Tony into marrying Marianne Hoffman, as she wants
both Marianne's father's patents and a grandchild who can take over the
company since Tony will not. She pushes Marianne to carry out her
pregnancy despite warnings from her doctor that her health makes it
unsafe to bear children, and Marianne dies giving birth to twin
daughters. Tony learns of Marianne's health issues and how his mother
persuaded her to carry out the pregnancy and, after bumping into
Dominique and her boyfriend, that his mother was responsible for the end
of his career, Tony goes insane and tries to kill Kate, but misses. He
is lobotomized and sent to an asylum, while Kate takes care of both the
company and her granddaughters, Eve and Alexandra.
Eve and Alexandra
Eve, the older twin, is manipulative and evil, and despises
Alexandra, whom she sees as an interloper, and tries to kill her several
times. Kate decides to name Eve heir to Kruger-Brent for her Kate-like
personality while Alexandra, clumsy but kind-hearted, will receive the
charity foundations and will live a comfortably wealthy life. Kate
eventually finds out about Eve's evil nature and disinherits her,
quietly but obviously turning to Alexandra as her heir. Eve meets George
Mellis during a party, and after getting raped by him, she digs into
his past and finds out that they share similar backgrounds, and they
plot to have Alexandra marry Mellis and then kill her, leaving George
the heir of Kruger-Brent. Eve helps Mellis win Alexandra's love and
Kate's approval, and they marry.
One night, Eve taunts Mellis to the point that he assaults her. She
recovers without any scars due to the work of talented surgeon Keith
Webster. Kate reconciles with Eve after hearing about her, and restores
Eve to her will. Eve realizes that Alexandra's death will put her under
her grandmother's suspicion and begs Mellis not to continue. However,
Mellis wants to inherit Alexandra's share and goes on with a honeymoon
ploy in a private yacht, where he intends to push Alexandra overboard
and kill her. Eve hastily stops the plan by delaying Alexandra and
posing as her sister to kill Mellis, but when the police find his body
stabbed to death before drowning they suspect Eve to be responsible for
Mellis' death. Keith realizes the truth when Dr. Peter Templeton, a
psychiatrist Eve visited under the guise of a suicidal Alexandra, says
that Eve's distinctive feature was a scar from her head from her
assault. Keith threatens to confess to the police if she doesn't marry
him, and although Eve marries him, she cheats on him openly with a
younger man. With Keith's silence and Kate's decision to lie for her so
Eve can be punished in Kate's terms, Eve is acquitted. However, Keith
deliberately destroys her face during a laugh line removal procedure,
making Eve devoted to Keith in fear that he will leave her and she will
be alone, and Kate decides that that will be Eve's punishment.
Meanwhile, Alexandra marries Dr. Templeton and they have a son named
Robert.
The book closes after Kate's ninetieth birthday party with all her
relatives present. Robert, now eight, is turning into a talented
pianist. She tries to meddle with Robert's future, but is rebuffed by
Peter. Kate relents, but offers to introduce him to a renowned musician,
leaving the reader to wonder whether Kate will repeat her mistake on
Tony's career.
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