Katharine Hepburn won more Oscars than any actor in history – and yet her most memorable role is the one she carved out for herself.

Hollywood in the early 1930s is a town full of secrets. When Katharine Hepburn arrives to launch her film career, she leaves behind her East Coast marriage and icy patrician family to live and love on her own terms. But stars must play by the rules and Kate, brilliant and bisexual, refuses to conform.

Surrounded by a legendary circle of intimates, including the powerful David and Irene Selznick, charming and romantically conflicted actor Cary Grant, ambitious director John Ford, and millionaire tycoon Howard Hughes, Kate navigates a web of sex, ambition, loyalty, and betrayal. All of them strive for success while struggling to outrun their own secrets. As Kate’s career ascends, she faces an agonising choice: be the star everyone wants her to be, or risk everything to become the woman she always was.

Drawing on primary archival sources, Parmar brings a novelist’s eye and a fresh perspective to Hepburn’s life and sparkling career.