A Long Petal of the Sea

by Isabel Allende

The story opens during the Spanish Civil War in Barcelona where the protagonist, Victor Dalmau, has left his medical studies to help the Republicans against the Fascist forces of General Franco. His brother, Guillem, is also a Republican soldier, but he dies in the Battle of Ebro. Victor has to seek the help of his Basque friend, Aitor Ibarra, to send his mother and Guillem's wife, Roser, to France, as the victory of Franco's forces is becoming more and more certain. After many trials, he reunites with Roser in France, and they hear that Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, is going to take a certain number of Spanish refugees to Chile. Desperate to grab the chance, Victor and Roser get married reluctantly to qualify for the journey.

They embark on this journey, but migration to the new country is not the end of their problem, and there again they are forced to witness the fight between freedom and repression, which seems to be a neverending war.