SHE SHE 18, PRETTY, TALENTED, AND DESPERA TO FIND HER PLACE IN THE WORLD.
Born out of wedlock to a Jewish language tutor in Vienna, she has just met her father for the first time. A successful Jewish businessman who managed to flee the Romanian pogroms, Herman Klempfner anglicized his name to H.K. Kempton and now runs a company in Manchester, England, that brings him regularly to Vienna. Back home, he has a wife and six children, but he embraces young Martha and cheerfully introduces her as his illegitimate daughter.
Has he helped support her all these years? We can only hope so. She does not bear his name; hers is Martha Beer. But no matter; she is about to change that name. She has accepted the marriage proposal of a darkly handsome, 30-year-old rogue who calls himself Sandor Vago. Like him, she dreams of a larger life, sparkling with art and graced with cash.
Three years later, she gives birth to a daughter they call Daisy. But Vago's sleight of hand soon catches up to him. To avoid a prison sentence, he packs up his wife and daughter and flees, eventually settling in Mexico. There, he opens a jewelry shop he calls Alexander Taylor's, using his father's (and no doubt his) legal surname. (“Vago” was probably a middle name he used to toy with the Hungarian police.) He begins buying jewels in Mexico and selling them in California.
The shine is already gone from the marriage. In 1926, Martha decides she cannot stand Vago's infidelity and irresponsibility any longer. When little Daisy comes down with typhoid fever, she takes her across the border to Los Angeles to recuperate, entering the country illegally. When they return, Martha packs for good, scooping up rather a lot of jewelry she claims is hers by right. Vago walks in before she can leave. He refuses to let her take Daisy. Martha leaves alone and goes into hiding for two weeks, watching for her chance. Then she grabs the little girl and vanishes into the U.S., again entering illegally.
Enraged, Vago has Martha arrested and deported. Daisy is to be deported, too, but he kidnaps her instead. It will take Martha three years to get her daughter back, helped by her halfbrother, Arthur Kempton.
First, Arthur gets Martha out of prison and brings her to his home. For the first time in, well, maybe ever, she can relax. They stay up late into the evenings, drinking and talking. Arthur's wife, Nellie, glares at Martha, young and lithe, sitting on the floor in a silk kimono, fondly running a hand down Arthur's back. Soon they are going out to party together and coming home so late it is early morning. Nellie's lips press tight. When she eventually explodes, Martha offers
