In the late 1950s, Truman meets Marella Agnelli in New York City. Married to Gianni Agnelli, heir to the Fiat auto fortune and the former lover of Pamela Hayward, Marella flatters Truman’s belief that he is a great writer. He begins collecting details about her life and her husband for his new novel, Answered Prayers.

Marella is born into a noble Neapolitan family. After the global stock crash of 1929, her father is forced to work for the first time and becomes a diplomat, moving the family around Europe and exposing Marella to different worldviews. Marella studies art in Paris, then moves to New York, where she works as a model. She meets Agnelli through the machinations of his sisters, who are desperate to stop him from seeing Pamela. She marries him despite knowing he is not a good man.

Agnelli’s grandfather became a partner in the company that would eventually become Fiat in 1899. During the First World War, Fiat produced vehicles for Mussolini’s fascist forces, increasing the family’s fortune. Born in 1921, Gianni Agnelli is raised knowing he will inherit the company but is reluctant to work hard for his fortune. He is known for his womanizing and narcissism—things that remain unchanged by his marriage and the birth of his children.