Daughter of a noted Viennese landscapist, Alma Maria Schindler Werfel (1879-1964) lived at the centre of Austrian musical and artistic creativity. Renowned for her beauty and artistic discernment, she was lionized by a circle of friends that included Klimt, Zemlinsky, Berg, Schoenberg, and Schnitzler, and had many lovers in addition to her three husbands, the composer Gustav Mahler, architect Walter Gropius, and writer Franz Werfel. While her own potential remained largely unfulfilled, her personality is evident in some of the greatest works produced in Austria this century. This biography also examines the extent to which the decline of Austria from imperial power to Nazi satellite, and small state influenced her turbulent life.