Abandoned by their family, Antoinette and Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel grew up under the guidance of pious nuns preparing them for simple lives as the wives of tradesmen or shopkeepers. When they came of age, the sisters set out together with a fierce determination to prove themselves worthy to a society that has never accepted them. Their journey propelled them out of poverty and to the stylish cafés of Moulins, the dazzling performance halls of Vichy--and to a small hat shop on the rue Cambon in Paris, where a business takes hold and expands to the glamorous French resort towns--just before World War I breaks out. --adapted from back cover