Evelyn Chooses Monique

In the present day, Monique Grant is a relatively unknown writer at Vivant magazine whose personal life is falling apart. Her husband, David, has moved to San Francisco for a job, and their separation is turning into a divorce. Professionally, Monique is still trying to prove herself when legendary Hollywood actress Evelyn Hugo unexpectedly requests her by name for what everyone assumes will be a Vivant interview.

Now in her late seventies, Evelyn has spent decades as one of Hollywood’s most famous—and most mysterious—stars. She is especially notorious for having had seven husbands, and the public has always been fascinated by which of them she truly loved.

When Monique arrives at Evelyn’s Manhattan apartment, however, Evelyn reveals that she has no intention of giving Vivant the interview they expect. Instead, she wants Monique to write her authorized biography, with the book to be published after Evelyn’s death. Monique will receive all the proceeds.

Monique cannot understand why someone as famous as Evelyn would choose an inexperienced writer she has never met. Evelyn promises she will explain eventually. First, she wants Monique to hear the entire story.

From Evelyn Herrera to Evelyn Hugo

Evelyn grows up as Evelyn Herrera in Hell’s Kitchen, the daughter of Cuban immigrants. Her mother dreams of becoming an actress but dies when Evelyn is young, leaving Evelyn with an abusive father. Desperate to escape him, Evelyn quickly learns that her beauty can be used as a means of survival.

At fourteen, she marries Ernie Diaz, not because she loves him but because he is going to California and can take her with him. Once in Hollywood, Evelyn begins reinventing herself. She dyes her dark hair blonde, minimizes her Cuban identity, changes her surname to Hugo, and carefully constructs the glamorous image that will eventually make her famous.

Producer Harry Cameron recognizes her potential and becomes one of the most important people in her life. He helps Evelyn begin building her career, but she quickly realizes that talent and beauty alone won’t get her the roles she wants. Determined to move up in Hollywood, she sleeps with studio executive Ari Sullivan in exchange for a part that could advance her career. As her star begins to rise, she no longer needs the marriage that brought her to California and divorces Ernie.

Her second husband, actor Don Adler, seems like the perfect match. He is Hollywood royalty, and their marriage makes Evelyn an even bigger star. Behind closed doors, however, Don is controlling and physically abusive. Evelyn initially remains with him because leaving could jeopardize her career, but the marriage becomes increasingly unbearable.

Evelyn Falls in Love with Celia

While filming Little Women, Evelyn meets rising actress Celia St. James. At first, Evelyn sees Celia as competition. Celia is enormously talented, and Evelyn worries that she will steal attention from her. But their rivalry gives way to friendship, attraction, and eventually a secret romantic relationship.

For Evelyn, this is different from every relationship she has had before. She has married men for escape, ambition, security, or publicity, but she genuinely loves Celia.

Their relationship is also dangerous. They are living in an era when being exposed as two women in love could destroy both of their careers. Evelyn therefore becomes obsessed with protecting their secret, even when doing so hurts Celia.

After Evelyn learns Don has been unfaithful, their marriage finally collapses. She later learns from actress Ruby Reilly, whom Don also marries, that his abusive behavior was not limited to Evelyn.

Once Evelyn is single, however, the press begins paying even closer attention to her relationship with Celia. Evelyn decides they need a spectacular heterosexual distraction.

Her solution is singer Mick Riva.

Evelyn deliberately convinces Mick to marry her in Las Vegas, intending for the marriage to be quickly annulled. The stunt works as publicity, but it creates a much larger problem when Evelyn discovers she is pregnant. She has an abortion, knowing she does not want Mick’s child.

When Celia learns Evelyn actually slept with Mick, she feels deeply betrayed. To Evelyn, the sex meant nothing and was simply part of protecting them. To Celia, Evelyn crossed a line she cannot accept. Their relationship falls apart, and they remain separated for years.

Marriage for Publicity—and a Family Built on Secrets

Evelyn’s fourth husband is actor Rex North, her costar in Anna Karenina. Their marriage is essentially a business arrangement designed to generate publicity for their movie and strengthen both of their careers. Neither is pretending privately that it is based on love.

The arrangement works until Rex falls genuinely in love with actress Joy Nathan and wants to marry her. Evelyn needs their divorce to benefit her as much as it benefits Rex, so she and Harry manufacture a scandal: they pretend they have been having an affair.

The supposed affair gives Evelyn and Rex a dramatic reason to divorce and conveniently sets up Evelyn’s next marriage—to Harry Cameron.

Harry is gay, and Evelyn knows it. By this point, he is also her closest friend and one of the few people who truly understands her. Their marriage is not romantic, but it is built on genuine love, loyalty, and trust. Together they have a daughter, Connor, whom they both adore.

Eventually, Evelyn and Celia find their way back to each other. Their lives settle into an unconventional arrangement involving Evelyn, Harry, Celia, and football player John Braverman. Publicly, Celia is married to John and Evelyn is married to Harry. Privately, Evelyn and Celia are together, while Harry and John are lovers.

For a time, the arrangement gives all four of them something close to the lives they actually want. Evelyn and Celia can love each other without destroying their careers, Harry and John can do the same, and Connor grows up surrounded by adults who love her.

But Evelyn and Celia’s relationship remains complicated by Evelyn’s ambition and the compromises she is willing to make for her career. Their love survives years of separations, reconciliations, jealousy, and sacrifice, but they repeatedly struggle over Evelyn’s willingness to use sex and public relationships as tools.

Max Girard and Another Break with Celia

After years of hiding, Evelyn’s choices once again damage her relationship with Celia. Evelyn agrees to perform a sexually explicit scene with actor Don Adler in a film directed by Max Girard, believing it will be important for her career. Celia considers it another betrayal.

The two women separate again.

Later, Evelyn marries Max, believing that he understands and loves the real woman behind the movie-star image. Instead, she eventually realizes that Max is in love with Evelyn Hugo the icon—the glamorous fantasy he has admired for years—not the actual person she is.

By then, Evelyn knows exactly who she truly wants.

She leaves Max and reunites with Celia.

Harry’s Death and Evelyn’s Connection to Monique

Tragedy has already begun dismantling the family they created. John Braverman dies suddenly from a heart attack, devastating Harry. His grief contributes to increasingly serious drinking.

Then Harry dies in a car crash.

Evelyn arrives at the scene and discovers Harry badly injured in the driver’s seat while another man is dead in the passenger seat. Harry admits he had been drinking and tells Evelyn that the other man is someone he loves.

Knowing that a drunk-driving scandal—and the revelation that Harry had been with a male lover—could destroy Harry’s reputation and deeply hurt Connor, Evelyn makes a horrifying decision. She moves the dead man into the driver’s seat so police will believe he was driving.

Harry later dies from his injuries.

For years, the world believes the other man caused the accident.

That man was James Grant, Monique’s father.

Evelyn finally reveals that this is why she chose Monique to write her biography. Monique grew up believing her father had died while driving drunk, and Evelyn knows that her actions helped create that story.

Monique is furious and horrified. Evelyn gives her a letter James wrote to Harry shortly before the crash. The letter reveals that James and Harry were in love, but James had decided that he could not abandon Monique and her mother. He intended to return to his family and end the relationship.

For Monique, the revelation completely changes the story she has believed about her father. He was not the reckless drunk driver responsible for Harry Cameron’s death. Evelyn deliberately made him appear to be one in order to protect Harry.

Evelyn does not ask Monique to forgive her. Instead, she gives Monique the truth and allows her to decide what to do with it.

Evelyn Finally Gets a Life with Celia

After leaving Max, Evelyn is finally ready to prioritize Celia over Hollywood. But their time together is limited. Celia has COPD and knows she does not have many years left.

To give them legal and financial protection, Evelyn marries Celia’s brother, Robert Jamison, making him her seventh and final husband. The marriage allows Evelyn, Celia, Robert, and Connor to live together while maintaining an acceptable public explanation for their closeness.

At last, Evelyn and Celia are able to spend their remaining years together more openly within their private world. Celia is not simply Evelyn’s secret lover anymore. She is, in every way that matters to Evelyn, her wife.

Celia eventually dies, leaving Evelyn devastated.

Robert later dies as well. Then Evelyn suffers the loss she never imagined surviving when Connor dies of breast cancer. By the time Monique meets her, nearly everyone Evelyn loved most is gone.

Evelyn Tells the World the Truth

After finishing her story, Evelyn reveals that she also has breast cancer. Monique begins to understand that the timing of the biography is not accidental. Evelyn is putting her affairs in order.

Before leaving Evelyn’s apartment, Monique realizes that Evelyn intends to die by suicide rather than wait for the cancer to kill her. She faces an impossible choice: intervene and potentially force Evelyn to endure an ending she does not want, or walk away.

Monique leaves.

Soon afterward, Evelyn dies from an apparent accidental overdose.

Monique now possesses the story Evelyn spent her entire life hiding: the truth about her ambition, her marriages, Harry, James Grant, and above all, Celia.

The great mystery surrounding Evelyn Hugo has always been which of her seven husbands was the love of her life.

The answer is none of them.

Evelyn’s great love was Celia St. James, the woman she loved across decades of secrecy, breakups, reconciliations, marriages, and loss. Monique ultimately prepares to publish Evelyn’s biography, fulfilling Evelyn’s final wish to stop protecting the carefully manufactured legend of Evelyn Hugo and finally tell the world who she really was.