Based on true-life people and events, Inés of My Soul recounts the astonishing life of a daring Spanish conquistadora who toiled to help build the nation of Chile-and whose vital role has too often been neglected by history.Born into a poor family in Spain, Inés Suárez, a seamstress, finds herself condemned to a life of hard work without reward or hope for the future. It is the sixteenth century-the beginning of the Spanish conquest of the Americas-and when her shiftless husband disappears to the New World, Inés uses the opportunity to search for him as an excuse to flee her stifling homeland and seek adventure. After a treacherous journey to Peru, she learns that her husband has died in battle. Soon she begins a fiery love affair with a man who will change the course of her life: Pedro Valdivia, war hero and field marshal to the famed Francisco Pizarro. Together, Inés and Valdivia will build the new city of Santiago and wage a ruthless war against the indigenous Chileans. The horrific struggle will change them forever, pulling each toward their separate destinies.