In 1974 Stephen Reece-Carlton and his bride Christina are honeymooning in Barbados. When they discover, and fall in love with, Crystal Springs House - an old colonial mansion - they decide there and then to buy it and convert it into a luxury hotel. From this beginning rises Platinum Hotels, one of the world's largest hotel groups.
This is the story of three members of the Carlton family: Stephen, whose ambition breeds ever greater ruthlessness as his empire expands; Christina, increasingly rejected by her husband but finding solace in the arms of a young Englishman, Martin Ward; and Victoria, Stephen's daughter by an earlier marriage, consumed with hatred for Christina and possessing a devastating secret which can shatter Stephen's relationship with his American business partner.
