Portrait in Sepia - Isabel Allende

After her mother dies in childbirth , Aurora del Valle is raised by her grandmother in San Francisco, but despite growing up in this rich and privileged environment, Aurora is unhappy. Haunted by terrible nightmares and the inexplicable absence of many of her childhood memories, and finding herself alone at the end of a love affair, she decides to travel to Chile to dicover what is was, exactly, all those years ago, that had such a devastating effect on her young life.