At the centre of this book is a portrait of a great film director whose films include The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Asphalt Jungle, The African Queen, The Misfits, and finally, The Dead. But although John Huston is the hub of the story, around him are Walter Huston, song-and-dance man in vaudeville, and Angelica, John Huston's daughter, all of whom are Oscar winners. The author describes their hardships, triumphs, their love affairs, their losses, and draws on more than 200 interviews with Huston's wives, children, friends and the people he worked with, as well as an interview with John Huston himself.