The young Fleur de Leigh has had a privileged background surrounded by the glamour and excitement of Hollywood life. But as she faces adolescence, this independent-minded, savvy girl struggles to find meaning in a world that thrives on artificiality. Wedged between a self-involved, couch-hopping faded B-movie star of a mother and an emotionally aloof father, Fleur must navigate her way out of this world of artifice to track down what really matters. On her quest, she encounters a revolving door of nannies, maids, cooks and character actors. But it is the friendship that develops between her and the gardener Constantine who is burly, worldly and sexually robust, that ultimately steers her away from her parents’ superficial lifestyle and towards the pleasures of the natural world. Seen through Fleur’s wide-open eyes, and told in her sharp knowing voice, FLEUR DE LEIGH’S LIFE OF CRIME is an on-target depiction of the madcap Hollywood movie colony of the late 1950’s.
