To JUSTINE DURANDT delusion is a means of escape from the real world. Her life as a world-famous film actress allows her to live in a coccoon, to shut out the truth and write the script for her own life's melodrama. Her upbringing on a lonely farm in South Africa leaves deep scars from abuse and a legacy which becomes her secret, ending her marriage to Matt Newbury, a charismatic homeopath to the rich and famous. She commissions a ghost writer, Raoul Jardine, to write her memoirs wanting to present to the world the woman she is not. He is more interested in the truth and becomes a threat to her delusion. In and out of clinics, her dark side begins to take control of her actions and she engages proxies to eliminate her perceived enemies, ultimately leading to her own destruction when the identity of the only person who knew the true secret of her life is revealed. GRIGOR SIDOROV is a young fine artist recognised for his exceptional talent. After perestroika he works for the State in the restoration of Russia's art and architectural treasures. The Sidorovs are a close family of White Russians, persecuted during the Soviet era. Grigor deludes himself that he alone carries the burden of the loss of the family's dignity, the blurring of their lineage back to the time of Tzar Peter the Great, and the dispossession of their wealth. In the Peterhof Palace in St Petersburg, the 18th C paintings by a famous Italian artist, Pietro Rotari, provide a compelling link with his family's claim to be descendents of Menshikov, the Tzar's close friend. He makes perfect copies of the paintings, the first step in his plan for retribution. At the Palace his co-worker, Lara, falls in love with him. She realises that his mental stability depends on him owning the original paintings, and she becomes his willing accomplice.
