Summary

The Prologue begins the novel from a first person point of view, with Zelda Fitzgerald as the narrator. It is 1940, and Zelda is writing a letter to her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, who is currently away at Hollywood. Zelda is in Montgomery, Alabama, as she has recently left a sanitarium and now lives with her mother. Zelda thinks about how badly she wants to see and care of Scott, even though she suspects he is with another woman. Zelda and Scott have spent the past few years separated, but continue to write to one another.

Chapter 1 begins Part I of the novel, as time skips backwards to the year 1918, Living in Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda Sayre is the youngest of five children and the daughter of the town’s attorney judge. Less than a month away from turning 18, Zelda’s only real interests are...