Born in 1728, French aristocrat Charles d'Eon de Beaumont had served his country as a diplomat, soldier and spy for 15 years when rumours that he was a woman began to circulate in the courts of Europe. D'Eon denied nothing and was finally compelled by Louis XVI to give up male attire and live as a woman, something d'Eon did without complaint for the next three decades. Although celebrated as one of the century's most remarkable women, d'Eon was revealed, after his death in 1810, to have been unambiguously male. Gary Kates's biography of d'Eon recreates 18th-century European society in detail and offers a portrait of an individual who challenged its conventions about gender and identity.