Here is the story of a small town American girl from Bradford, Pennsylvania, and Long Beach California, who made good the hard way; of pirate records, dubbed movie soundtracks -- she was the voice of Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones -- foreign apprenticeships, small parts, and the breaks that finally came; of famous roles and performances -- the creation of her Rosina, Adalgisa, Carmen, Tancredi, Isabella, and Arsace among many others -- and of her colleagues -- clear-eyed assessments of everyone from Sutherland to Pavarotti to Caldwell to Caballe.