 1847 - In the gay half-world of Paris, the gentlemen of the day met the girls of the moment at certain theatre, balls and gambling clubs where the code was discretion ... but the game was romance. This is the story of one of those pretty creatures who lived on the quicksands of popularity - Marguerite Gautier, who brightened her wit with champagne, and sometimes her eyes with tears. From the novel of  Alexandre Dumas fils  (qv) this is the story which  Giuseppe Verdi  (qv) took for La Traviata.