Based on memoirs, the story of an American family living in Paris in the sixties and seventies, told from the point of view of the daughter, Channe. The father, Bill Willis, is a successful expatriate writer, a WWII veteran haunted by his experiences in the Pacific. His wife, Marcella, is an emotional, fun-loving woman. The first segment is set when six-year old Benoit, a French orphan, is brought into the family for adoption: Channe and Benoit must get used to each other, and to school. The second segment deals with Channe's first friendship with a boy, this experience interrupted when the family move back to America for the sake of Bill's bad health. Having to deal with adolescence and assimilation to a new culture, along with their father's worsening health, both children experience identity crises questioning--to which nationality, and to which culture do their souls belong?