In Worth Robyn Schiff inquires about making, buying, selling, and stealing in the material world, the natural landscape, and the human soul. Opening with the renowned couture house of Charles Frederick Worth, the father of high fashion-- "The dress was so big, / one's hand is useless to take glass from table; / the skirt approaches while the hand is yet distancedo --and ending with the House of De Beers and a diamond thief named Adam Worth-- "You'll know me by my approach / I'm coming on foot with a diamond in my moutho --Schiff moves from Cartier and Tiffany to the Shedd Aquarium, from Marie Antoinette to the Civil War, from Mary Pickford to Marilyn Monroe.