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Amber Fournier was born Amber Davies in 1891 in London, England, raised biligual by an English father and French mother, the oldest of three sisters. They were upper-middle-class, relatively well-off, and as she was introduced to the theatre, she soon decided she wanted to become an actress, a career much disappoved off by her parents. Against their wishes, she started auditioning for cabarets and smaller roles at whatever theatres would take her in. She made only slow progress. That was until she met Pierre Fournier, a French theatre director, who either saw her and recognised her huge potential or saw her and recognised the ample size of her breasts, maybe a bit of both. Under any circumstances, he promised her a star career in Paris, if she would just marry him, so - even more so against her parents' wishes - Amber did. Over summer, she got married, said goodbye to her family, left for France and never looked back. She hasn't seen her family since; she hasn't tried to reach out to them either.

In Paris, she realised that Pierre was not the hot-shot director he's made himself out to be, but rather a minor figure at a minor theatre that staged comedies. Amber had not signed up for slapstick comedy, however, and throughout the next year and a half, there were many fights, many disagreements, many doors slammed as she threatened to leave Pierre, though they both knew she had nowhere to go. Amber stayed put, waiting for her chance - which came when Pierre was aboard a train one autumn morning that derailed, killing everyone on board. Her husband included. Amber was not the sole heir to his not inconsiderable fortune and, better yet, she was no longer bound to his theatre but could seek work elsewhere.

This would be the beginning of her years of stardom in Paris.

Soon, she would be recognised for her talents out in Shakespearean theatre and was commended as a serious actress with a flair for tragedy. To Amber, however, acting remained just a job she did - living mainly for the perks, the café visits, the parties and balls, the attention and the love affairs. The money and the fame.

One day, she meets Léonie Martel, the fiancée of one of her patrons, Jean-Germain Deschamps, and they fall in love with each other, living one brief summer in the hope of a happy ending, but just as Amber portrays tragedy better on stage than comedy, she only knows how to live tragically in life. As their affair rages on, she realizes that Léonie will have no security, if she runs off with Amber - so Amber makes the decision for her. She leaves Léonie heartbroken in order to make her stay with Jean-Germain, herself heading for America to have yet another fresh start, away from the Years of Folly in France.