Nick Winemiller is a moderately successful screenwriter. His marriage has come to a humiliating end and his latest screenplay has been rejected. A friend suggests a change of pace: why not write an article on "The Private Life of Helen of Troy?" This film, a Hollywood legend, was filmed in Rome, an epic so beset by calamity that it was never finished. Flashback to 1968. Nick, tormented by teenage angst, is still a virgin and eager to move into adulthood. He is working on the film as assistant to his father, Bill Winemiller, a famed and highly successful writer/director. Bill's leading lady Lara Wildwood is also his mistress. Nick's difficulties with his father lead him to serve as go-between in the love affair between Lara and her leading man Tony Clive. This cannot end well... The Goddess of Destruction is written with mordant wit and informed by a knowledge of the film industry and an intimate familiarity with Rome, the Eternal City.