Eva Luna is the daughter of a professor's assistant and a snake-bitten gardener – born poor, orphaned at an early age and working as a servant. Eva is a naturally gifted and imaginative storyteller who meets people from all walks of life. Though she has no wealth, she trades her stories like currency with people who are kind to her. As she shares her stories, she introduces an eccentric cast of characters: the Lebanese émigré who takes her in, her Catholic godmother who believes in saints, a street urchin who grows up to be the leader of the guerrilla struggle, a celebrated trans cabaret star and a young refugee whose flight from postwar Europe will change Eva's life forever. 
 
As Eva tells her story, Isabel Allende brings to life a complex South American country – the rich, the poor, the sophisticated – in a novel that celebrates the power of imagination and storytelling.