Katherine Trevalyan (1908)

Valentina Marques and Dimitri Maciel are two young, strong-willed people deeply in love with each other, but the dictates of society and their divergent social standings in post-World War I Portugal place them worlds apart. A night of newly discovered passion leads to tragic consequences, and Valentina is forced to make a choice that impacts both her and Dimitri for years to come. There is no greater sorrow than that of lost love. Valentina experiences bitter disappointment and rejection at a very young age, but through her pain and struggle she never loses her sense of who she is. Her underlying love for a man she cannot have gives her an aim in life and a purpose to strive. It is when Valentina finally comes to terms with the woman she has become that her life turns upside down. Dimitrias return brings with it another life-altering choice: Does Valentina respond to her heart, or does she turn away from the only man she ever truly loved?