"When I wrote these memoirs in 1852, I was ignorant of the future awaiting me; who could have known? It was not my willful brazenness that dictated I write these memoirs; it was not for provocation or moral outrage, as some of those who were quick to take offense said. Before you sentence the guilty, at least listen through to the end of the story."

So begins the memoirs of Céleste Mogador, an infamous Parisian courtesan and performer. In her first sixteen years, she has plenty to rebel against: an abusive stepfather, her mother's groping new boyfriend, her jailers, her first madame, and her first client. Not to mention the actual rebellion that engulfed the streets of Lyon in flames when she was a child.

Mogador lays out her childhood and her choices—or lack of them—in this first volume of her memoirs, setting the stage for the glittering life to come.