What is the main conflict in Chanel and Her World by Edmonde Charles-Roux?

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel is an image of the dream every poor girl has of becoming a princess and living among all things beautiful. But even for all of her attaining wealth and artistic renown, Chanel lived forever pining for a love that would last a lifetime.

She was born to poor parents at the end of the nineteenth century, her mother dying when she was young and her father immediately abandoning her and her sister to an orphanage. She remained there until she went to a convent and then started working for a designer of women's intimate apparel. She dabbled in the theater and eventually met a wealthy man who would make her his mistress in Etienne Balsan.

She existed with several other beautiful but marginalized women in their demimonde, unwelcome in the high society their lovers occupied, but kept active and entertained among themselves and surrounded by horses. Another eventual lover, Boy Capel, shared her desire to work and earn a living, and gave her her own shop which allowed her to begin working as a milliner. Her success was immediate, and eventually she was able to buy her own shop and work emancipated from the men who had financed her.