When Consuelo Vanderbilt's grandfather died, he was the richest man in America. Her father soon started to spend the family fortune supported by his wife Alva, who was determined to take the family to the top of New York society-forcing a heartbroken Consuelo into a marriage she did not want with the underfunded Duke of Marlborough. But the story of Consuelo and Alva is more than a tale of enterprising social ambition, Gilded Age glamour, and the emptiness of wealth. It is a fascination account of two exraordinary women who struggled to break free from the world where females were voiceless and powerless and fight their lifelong dedication to the battle for women's rights.