"My dear, always remember; when something is patched, it can never be unpatched. Look, though, it looks like new. Patching is an art."

"And what exactly does patching mean? And why not buy something new? After all, you have so many examples," Nora wondered.

"Patching is the repair of something that is broken, but you don't want to part with it or can't part with it. Patching is art, my dear. It is a gift; to be able to change something that is old or flawed and fix it again so that you like it."

Nora, baptized Eleonora, the illegitimate daughter of Michail Chiotellis, learns the art of patching at her father's house in Mytilene, around the mid-1800s. However, she does not patch her clothes; she patches the sorrows of her life, starting with her name. Only her name, though, as she does not have a surname as an illegitimate child. Her talent helps her survive the hardships that afflict the island and turn her life upside down, confront the people who hurt her, starting with her brother, give herself to love without considering moral rules, and ultimately acquire what she has always desired: an identity. However, every patch has a price. And Nora pays for them all - all thirteen patches. Because that's how many she needed to make.