Twelve-year-old Penelope arrives in Chios for the first time with eagerness and awe, as she has heard so much about her grandparents' island. She gets to know the beauties of the place, the customs and traditions of its people, discovers the tulips and Chios mandarins, learns about the cultivation of mastic, and... falls in love. Although the book is a work of fiction, it refers to a real trip by Penelope Delta to Chios in the summer of 1886. Through its pages, we learn aspects of the personality of our great author, as many elements have been drawn from her work. We also learn about the great massacre and destruction of the island in 1822, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the tragic event that inspired the French painter Eugène Delacroix to create the painting "The Massacre at Chios" and sparked a Philhellenic movement throughout Europe.