Marya has been called many things: dancer, actress, Playboy Bunny, society hostess, doctor’s wife, China Doll—and, occasionally, trouble.

Born in the Philippines to a Filipina mother and an absent American father, she arrived in New York determined to become someone entirely of her own making. Soon she was dancing professionally, kissing Elvis Presley on screen, trading quips with Frank Sinatra, and moving through a world of movie stars, millionaires, socialites, artists, politicians, plastic surgeons, horses, dogs, and more than a few badly behaved men.

Marya co-created a plastic surgery empire, hosted the rich and powerful, and lived the kind of life that looks enviable from the other side of the velvet rope. But glamour has its price, and even a mansion can become a very well-decorated cage.

Now 80, Marya Coburn looks back on a life of glamour, entertainment, ambition and reinvention, filled with love and betrayal, friendship and caring. Funny and frank, this revealing memoir tells the story of a woman who shatters stereotypes, moving easily among powerful people, always finding ways to become more fully herself.