It's 1984, and investigative reporter Arthur Stuart is trying to locate Brian Slade, the glam-rock superstar who faked his own death and vanished from the spotlight ten years earlier... Todd Haynes's kaleidoscopic glam-rock epic, Velvet Goldmine (1998), is an alternative history, bridging memory and fantasy, and a queer cult classic.

The film was divisive on its release, but in this book, Katherine Reed reveals how the film's fans have since kept it alive through re-watches, re-listens, and fan fiction. A celebration of high-camp fakery and gender-fluid sexuality, Velvet Goldmine is today as relevant as ever; In Haynes's words, it is part of a “long tradition of gay readings of the world." Reed weaves the history of the film with close readings of its cinematic references, songs, and style. She reevaluates Velvet Goldmine in light of Haynes's other films, addresses its fraught production history, reveals how its main characters are clearly drawn from the lives of Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and more (in ways that serve to rewrite those figures' real histories), analyses its soundtrack (situating the music in the context of Britpop of the 1990s and compilation film scores of the era as well as contextualizing the original, 1970s recordings), and examines the work of legendary costume designer Sandy Powell in creating believable blends of fantasy and reality in each character's wardrobe. Like the film itself, this is not a linear history, but an exploration of how Velvet Goldmine intertwines voices and the ways in which it teaches us to create anew.