Six heirlooms

a portrait, a table, a parure, a whiskey label, a set of books, and a building -- tell the stories of six branches of a family whose possessions lived through three centuries and eventually came together under one roof before dispersing again.

These items have survived through generations and witnessed their owners as they evolved through history. In addition to the lives of their individual owners, the stories also cover certain historical and cultural figures, both American and French: slave traders and plantation owners, merchants and financiers of New York, whiskey distillers, Creoles of Louisiana, wreckers off the Florida Keys, drafters on Napoleon's mission to Egypt, French lawyers and politicians, World War II fighters, and CIA spies.

The book pays homage to the heirlooms' past owners; it also examines the culture that surrounds families of wealth and status and the fierce struggle to retain these advantages through marriage ties. The stories pay homage to the heirlooms' past owners.