"Listen to me, Paula, I'm going to tell you a story so you won't feel so lost when you wake up again." The unimaginable happened in December 1991 when Isabel Allende's daughter Paula suddenly fell seriously ill and soon after slipped into a coma. A treacherous metabolic disease had abruptly brought down the vibrant young woman, and she passed away in the autumn of 1992. The fate of her daughter became the heaviest trial of Isabel Allende's life. To keep hope alive, she wrote the book of her life - in both a personal and intimate sense, her most personal and intimate book, a hymn to life.