The time is now, the place is Italy, particularly the enchanted lake at Nemi, southeast of Rome, where the Temple of Diana once stood. The people form an extraordinary frieze of votaries of love and money, with the goddess-like American heiress Maggie at the center, justly famed for her beauty, her wealth, and the steeliness of her will. To many, as to her old confidant, Hubert Mallindaine, Maggie is an ever-tempting target for takeover. Indeed he lives -- squats, some would say -- in one of Maggies houses, selling off her paintings and furniture and seeking to set up the cult of the ancestress he claims, Diana herself. An assortment of jewel thieves, counterfeiters, art smugglers, adulterers, spongers, and fanatics, plus the international confidence man Coco de Renault, after nothing less than her entire fortune, seek to exploit Maggie. They find that those who serve themselves at her expense succeed only in serving her, as the dance goes on.