Founded in 1859 by Henry Shaw, the Missouri Botanical Garden is recognized internationally as a research center and is known for seasonal floral displays and the Climatron, the first geodesic-dome greenhouse. But few people know much about Henry Shaw himself, the successful businessman who began the Garden, and gave it and the 276 acres of Tower Grove Park to the city. While the Garden was open to all, Shaw's private life has until now remained closed.

Shaw was an enigmatic man, full of many contradictions. He wrote of attractive women in his diaries and journals and kept some of their letters, but never married. He deplored slavery on his arrival in St. Louis, but owned eleven slaves. He proposed his own philosophy of history, arguing that wine was the secret of national progress.

After extensive research in Shaw's native England and at the Missouri Botanical Garden archives, William Barnaby Flaherty separates the myths from the facts and brings new insight into Shaw's life and personality. He also presents a colorful picture of one of the world's outstanding institutions.