Maria wird mit dem Versprechen nach Genf gelockt, als Tänzerin arbeiten zu können, wird aber zur Prostitution gezwungen. Sie beginnt, den Job zu genießen, bis sie sich in einen Maler verliebt und sich entscheiden muss. Maria moves to Geneva to become a dancer but instead is forced into prostitution. She actually begins to enjoy the job until love gets in the way. This books tells the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Instead, she ends up working as a prostitute. In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love as she develops a fascination with sex. Eventually, Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness, sexual pleasure for its own sake, or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love. In this gripping and daring new novel, Paulo Coelho sensitively explores the sacred nature of sex and love and invites us to confront our own prejudices and demons and embrace our own "inner light.
