In Hearst's monumental castle, his butler recalls a hidden life of reckless love and financial downfall . For twenty years Christian Benediktsson has led a quiet life as butler to William Randolph Hearst. His days are filled with the rituals of Hearst's life and the demands of running a grand house. But in his most private thoughts and memories, he relives another life - abandoning his wife and children in Iceland for an actress in New York; a reckless affair and tragic death, financial downfall, and the profound retreat from life which led him to Hearst's San Simeon castle. No one else knows the secret of the man who he once was - husband, father, businessman, lover - but his past is now closing in upon him, and he must face it or walk away into the night .