From internationally bestselling author Isabel Allende comes an exquisitely crafted, multigenerational love story. In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis & the world goes to war, young Alma Belasco`s parents send her overseas to live with an aunt & uncle in their opulent San Francisco mansion. There she meets Ichimei Fukuda, the son of the family`s Japanese gardener, & between them a tender love blossoms, but following Pearl Harbor the two are cruelly pulled apart. Throughout their lifetimes, Alma & Ichimei reunite again & again, but theirs is a love they are forever forced to hide from the world. Decades later, Alma is nearing the end of her long & eventful life. Irina Bazili, a care worker struggling to reconcile her own troubled past, meets the older woman & her grandson, Seth, at Lark House nursing home. As Irina & Seth forge a friendship, they become intrigued by a series of mysterious gifts & letters sent to Alma, & learn about Ichimei & this extraordinary secret passion that has endured for nearly seventy years.