Published in 2012, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter is a historical fiction romance novel that satirizes the ugliness of the film industry. Set in Italy, Hollywood, the United Kingdom, Seattle, and Idaho across several decades, the novel ties the lives and dreams of several characters together as they mingle before, during, and after the filming of the Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1963 blockbuster Cleopatra.

At its core, the novel is the story of a would-be actress who is all but destroyed by an ambitious Hollywood publicist vying for power, the Italian hotelier who becomes infatuated with her, her floundering rock star son, an alcoholic World War II veteran who spends years trying and failing to write his war novel, a chief development assistant longing to produce high-brow films, and an aspiring screenwriter looking for a chance to redeem himself. Beautiful Ruins is Walter’s sixth novel and a New York Times best seller. This guide references the 2013 Harper-Perennial edition of the novel.

Plot Summary

The story begins in April 1962, as Cleopatra supporting actress Debra Moore (going by the alias Dee Moray) arrives in a hotel in Porto Vergogna, Italy. Pasquale Tursi, the hotel’s owner, becomes smitten with her and hopes that she will attract tourists to the seaside village. Soon after Dee’s arrival, another hotelier, Gualfredo, and his goon, Pelle, intimidate Pasquale into paying them a tax. Pasquale forms a bond with Dee. She tells him that she came to Porto Vergogna to meet with the man she loves, but he has not arrived. When a doctor suggests that Dee might be pregnant, Pasquale sets out for Rome to find Michael Deane, the man whom Pasquale assumes to be her lover. On the way to Rome, Pasquale stops in Florence to check on his ex-lover Amedea and their son Bruno.

Pasquale arrives in Rome and is cast as an extra in Cleopatra. He meets with Michael Deane, who reveals that he lied to Dee and plans to send her to Switzerland to have an abortion without her knowledge. An interpreter leads Pasquale to Richard Burton, the male lead of Cleopatra, who asserts that he is Dee’s lover and the biological father of her child. Richard Burton and Pasquale drive back to Porto Vergogna and discover that Gualfredo and Pelle captured Dee and brought her to Gualfredo’s hotel in Portovenere. With the help of the local fishermen, Richard Burton and Pasquale reach Dee and tell her the truth.

The next day, Pasquale’s aunt, Valeria, tells Pasquale that she killed his mother, Antonia, because Antonia thought her death would free him to marry Dee. Distraught, he takes a nap and wakes up to find his friend Alvis Bender, a WWII vet and failed writer, in his room. Michael Deane and Richard Burton appear later and ask if Pasquale has seen Dee, who was supposed to leave for Switzerland but is nowhere to be found. Pasquale finds Dee in a pillbox bunker, and he brings her back to The Hotel Adequate View, where she meets Alvis.

Gualfredo and Pelle return to Porto Vergogna, but Pasquale fights back with the help of Alvis and a fisherman named Lugo. While Pasquale feels chemistry between him and Dee, he recognizes his failure as a father to Bruno, and he sets out to marry Amedea.

Dee does not have an abortion and returns to Seattle to give birth to a boy she names Pasquale, or Pat for short. She begins to go by the name Debra again. A year after Pat’s birth, Alvis arrives in Seattle to scout out a Chevrolet dealership and reconnects with Debra. The two marry, and Alvis provides Debra with emotional support and helps raise Pat until his untimely death in 1967. Debra dates other men after Alvis’s death, but none of her suitors can handle Pat’s mischief.

Pat matures and becomes the substance-abusing front man for a band called The Reticents in the late 1980s and early ’90s before fading into obscurity. In 2008, Pat tries to revive his music career by going on tour in the United Kingdom, but his dreams of renewed stardom crumble. Unable to earn enough money to return to the United States, Pat lives on the streets for a period.

In the 2010s, an aging Pasquale decides to travel to the United States to find Debra after Amedea dies. He goes to Michael Deane’s studio, hoping Michael Deane knows where Debra lives. At the studio, he meets Shane Wheeler, a failed writer hoping to pitch a film that will bring him success, and Claire Silver, Michael Deane’s chief development assistant. Michael Deane, now a major Hollywood producer, meets with the three of them to find out what Pasquale wants. He asks Shane, who speaks Italian, to translate for him, but Shane refuses to do so unless Michael Deane listens to his pitch. Michael Deane agrees to listen and offers to produce the film. In addition, he promises to help Pasquale find Debra.

Claire realizes that Michael Deane only liked Shane’s pitch because the idea was bad enough to strike him out of his contract with Universal. She tells Shane the truth, and Shane immediately forms a plan to barter for more money from Michael Deane. Michael Deane’s private investigator discovers Debra’s location, and the Deane Party (Michael Deane, Claire, Shane, and Pasquale) fly out to Spokane and then drive to Sandpoint, Idaho to meet with Debra.

The Deane Party watches Lydia’s autobiographical play, “Front Man,” at the theater Debra runs, and Pat captivates the audience with his rousing portrayal of himself. After the play ends, the Deane Party look for Pat, Lydia, and Debra at the after-party but cannot find them. A friend of Pat’s takes the Deane Party to Pat, Lydia, and Debra’s cabin, and Pasquale reunites with Debra after 50 years. Michael Deane tries to buy Pat’s life rights, but Pat refuses. Debra finally tells Pat that Richard Burton is his biological father.

In the end, Michael Deane leaves Debra and Pat alone, and he and Claire produce a film adaption of “Front Man.” Shane becomes a television writer, and Pat stays sober by doing grueling chores around the cabin. Pasquale and Debra vacation in Italy, where they talk about how they have lived over the past five decades and begin a hike to the pillbox bunker.