The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Allende, Isabel. A Long Petal of the Sea. Ballantine Books, 2020.

Isabel Allende's novel A Long Petal of the Sea is written from the third person point of view and in the past tense. Tracing nearly 60 years, the novel begins in Spain in 1938 and ends in Chile in 1994. Although the narrator shifts between various characters and settings throughout the novel, for the sake of clarity, the following summary adheres to a more streamlined mode of explanation.

In 1938, Victor Dalmau was serving on the front as a medic during the latter years of the Spanish Civil War. One day, when a man died on his table, he reached inside his chest and squeezed his heart. The man came back to life. Victor told his colleagues the act was not inspired by medical training but was born of impulse.

Victor received a letter from his mother Carme informing him that his father Marcel Lluis would soon die. Victor tried contacting his brother Guillem to come home with him, but Guillem could not leave his position on the front. Back home in Barcelona, Victor, Carme, and Roser, the girl their family had taken in years prior, sat with Marcel Lluis on his death bed.

Nine days after Marcel Lluis's burial, Guillem returned home. Roser immediately realized he was unwell. She nursed him back to health over the following weeks, a period which inspired the two to fall in love with one another. Before Guillem returned to the front, they had sex, feeling that the future was almost nonexistent anyway.

Guillem died in battle shortly thereafter. Victor decided not to give the news to his family. Roser was pregnant with Guillem's baby. Victor thought that if he waited until after the baby was born to tell Roser and Carme about Guillem, their grief would not be as profound.

Thousands of Spanish citizens and soldiers were forced to flee their homeland for France. Victor's friend Aitor helped Roser and Carme escape Barcelona. During the trip, Carme disappeared and Aitor could not recover her. He did, however, bring Roser to safety.

Some time later, Victor reconnected with Roser in France. She had had her baby, a boy she named after Victor's late father, Marcel. Victor told her that Guillem had died and suggested they get married. They needed to leave Europe as the continent was on the verge of another war. To board the Winnipeg, a ship headed to Chile, however, they had to be married. Roser agreed.

Although Victor and Roser missed their lives in Spain, they knew they would have to settle into life in Chile. Victor returned to medical school and opened a tavern with a friend. Meanwhile, Roser not only raised Marcel, but cultivated her musical and sewing skills.

When Marcel was 10, the family received a letter from Carme. With the help of some connections, she had finally found a way to contact her son and his family. Victor, Roser, and Marcel traveled to Andorra to reunite with Carme. Although they wanted her to come to Chile, it would take her nearly a year to decide to leave Europe. After she finally did come to Chile, she built a particularly close relationship with her grandson. Therefore, when Carme died, Marcel was the most devastated of all.

Because Victor had become involved with various Communist politicians and individuals, he was arrested one day while at the hospital. Brought to a concentration camp, Victor was convinced he would never escape. However, after saving the commandant's life, he was granted parole. Back home, he told Roser they had to leave Chile as soon as possible. The dictator Pinochet was rising to power and he could not live in such circumstances. Roser agreed to flee to Venezuela with him. The two would remain there for nearly a decade before returning to Chile.

Three years after Roser died of cancer, Victor was living alone in his country home. Although Marcel encouraged him to remarry, at 80 years old, Victor could not imagine doing so. Then one night, Victor's estranged daughter Ingrid surfaced at his door. Ingrid explained that she was Victor's daughter. Her mother Ofelia was one of Victor's lovers. Over the course of the evening, the two exchanged their stories. Ingrid renewed Victor's sense of hope and possibility.