The following summary has been excerpted from the book jacket.

The fact that Irene Beltrán came from a wealthy bourgeois family did not prevent Francisco Leal, a young photographer secretly engaged in undermining the military dictatorship, from being strongly attracted by her beauty. It did not matter that her fiancé, Gustavo Morante, the “Bridegroom of Death”, was an army Captain; each time Francisco accompanied her on a magazine assignment he fell more deeply in love with her.

When they went to investigate the mysterious case of Evangelina Ranquileo, a girl suffering from spectacular fits which were rumoured to have miraculous powers, there did not seem to be any cause for concern. Then the soldiers' arrival brought mayhem in its wake. Evangelina's subsequent disappearance deepened the mystery. The enterprising pair, in attempting to trace her and indict the Junta, became engulfed in a vortex of terror and violence.

Set in an atmosphere of pervading uncertainty and fear, in a country of arbitrary arrests, sudden disappearances and summary executions, Isabel Allende's second novel tells of the passionate affair of two people prepared to risk everything for the sake of justice and truth. The grim reality of overcrowded morgues and mass graves is contrasted with the colourful landscape of South America. Here are boldly drawn characters, such as Irene's wilfully ignorant, decadent mother, Francisco's impulsive, foolhardy father (a Spanish Professor in exile), and Mario, a homosexual celebrity and fearless subversive - who experience the joys and sorrows of a country where anything can happen: a convention of frogs, free meat distributed by a “Philanthropic Butchershop”, a baby born by falling through the skylight.

As in The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende here reveals an awesome power of story-letting. Love and Shadows unfolds a riveting tale of tragedy and ecstasy, of bravery and sacrifice, of family loyalty and state betrayal that is both profoundly moving and uplifting.