Acclaimed writer Truman Capote surrounded himself with a coterie of society's most elite women – rich, glamorous socialites who defined a bygone era of high society New York – whom he nicknamed ‘the swans.' Beautiful and distinguished, the group included grande dame Barbara "Babe" Paley, Slim Keith, C.Z. Guest and Lee Radziwill. Enchanted and captivated by these doyennes, Capote ingratiated himself into their lives, befriending them and becoming their confidante, only to ultimately betray them by writing a thinly veiled fictionalization of their lives, exposing their most intimate secrets. When an excerpt from the book, Answered Prayers, Capote's planned magnum opus, was published in Esquire, it effectively destroyed his relationship with his swans, banished him from the high society he so loved and sent him into a spiral of self-destruction from which he would ultimately never recover.
