Book excerpt: The tale of Quentin Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt's youngest son, and his secret fiancée, Flora Payne Whitney. At the ebb of the Gilded Age, young Quentin is the scion of America most celebrated political family. Lovely Flora is the privileged daughter of the Whitneys and the Vanderbilts, two of the nation's richest dynasties. The lives of Quentin and Flora intersect at the dawn of the Great War in Europe after each has grown up in the public spotlight -- he in the White House and she in the storied mansions of New York and Newport. His childhood precociousness charms the nation and parallels Flora's envelopment in her parents' worlds of high art, luxury yachts and personal unfaithfulness. Through their actual letters, we share their youthful dreams and desires, and partake in the agony of their separation amid high-level political intrigue. We learn of their last night together, secluded on her father's yacht, and their hush-hush engagement. Quentin sails for France with a determination to prove his stuff in aerial combat against the Kaiser's air force, only to be foiled at first by military indecisiveness and, ironically, his own exceptional competence. When an unexpected chance to fly comes, Quentin's choice opens a deep schism among the Roosevelts, one that pits father against sons. Is Quentin a victim or a slacker? On the home front, Flora and an aging and embittered Theodore Roosevelt struggle to find a way through wartime red tape so she can go to France and marry Quentin before combat begins.