Virginia Seton lives in rainy, seedy New Orleans, working as a researcher for an historical novelist with a "strip-mined" imagination. On a brief trip back to New Zealand for her sister's wedding, Virginia is drawn into the family secrets, lies and tensions of both the past and the present.Spanning three generations of a large Pakeha/Maori family in a narrative that skilfully handles interwoven stories and multiple voices, Queen of Beauty explores the fragility of truth, the elusiveness of the past, and the transcendent power of love.