Harbor Hill in Roslyn, Long Island, was designed to be a "palace" for a "queen." Commissioned by the beautiful and imperious Katherine Duer Mackay, wife of one of the country's wealthiest men, it was an estate almost without equal in the entire country. This is the saga of that magnificent mansion, an extravagant product of the owners' hubris and desire for social acceptance, and of the ultimate failure of that driving ambition. Incorporating elements of both tragedy and farce, Wilson's very American portrait covers old versus new wealth, religious differences over the building of a church, and art collecting, as well as the variety of people involved with Harbor Hill, from the architects, builders, and workers to the servants and staff who ran the house and gardens.