By  Isabel allende

The love affair starts in a San Francisco mansion as the Nazis invade Poland.  When Alma Belasco is sent to America in 1939, she meets and falls for soft-spoken Japanese gardener Ichimei Fukada.  The Japanese bombing of Pearl harbor tears the lovers apart when Ichimei’s family is sent to an internment camp.  Alma continues to receive gifts and letters from her beloved decades  later, sharing her passionate tale with a fellow nursing home resident.