The Store tears away the glittering facade of the nation's most famous and prestigious department store-Lehson's and Company of Tulsa City, Oklahoma-to reveal the shocking power struggle and sexual decadence that lie beneath. This powerful and disturbing novel probes the dark underworld of the fashion industry.

The dying patriarch of the Lehson dynasty and his three daughters dominate the store and the world built around it: Stella, the proud, ruthless president with secret political ambitions; Lyla, a beautiful, haunted woman whose tragic promiscuity deforms a loving heart; and Edna, the eldest Lehson, whose mysterious locked room at the Circle O Ranch holds a realm of fantastic aberrations.

Into this universe of glamour and commerce come the famous designers to accept their awards: Heymano, a handsome young man with superb taste and a driving inner madness; Ceil Bordon, high priestess of the cosmetic world, with a miraculous “zinger” that will change the habits of the superrich; and Alice Short, a tiny juggernaut of a designer whose power can send careers crashing.

Behind the scenes the store executives play the power game: Eugene Boardman, a cold and calculating “gentleman”; Bill Bethel, the suave fox in charge of promotion; Walter Culbertson, premier profitwringer utterly without ethics; and Carl Guest, the display director whose jaded eyes see through the sham.

And finally there are the customers, those wealthy ultra-eccentrics who dote on the dictates of a store so important it can order a trend and have it delivered on time: Michelle De Soto, whose six husbands were chosen to conform to a monogram; Momma Pepper and her fifty-yearold baby, Clay; and Mrs. Griffith, millionaire homebody, who wears her diamonds while baking fudge.

Woven through this galaxy of rich and exotic characters is the simple love story of Josh and Ann, whose meeting and discovery ignites with a purity and passion in dramatic contrast to the violence and despair that surround them.