Love is a major theme in the novel. Viv is a woman who suffers loss even before she is old enough to understand it. Viv's parents both died in a plane crash, leaving her an orphan at the young age of eight. This leaves Viv in the custody of an aunt who is not an overly affectionate woman. When Viv is barely sixteen, her aunt sends her to London to finishing school, a situation which places her as a child away from home, in a foreign land, without the support of family. A childhood such as this leaves Viv feeling a lack of affection and anxious to find love in whatever form she can.