Here, in Anna Gavalda's epic and universal new novel of intimate lives Gavalda explores the unexpected twists of fate that connect four people in Paris. Camille is doing her best to disappear. She barely eats, works at night as a cleaner, and lives in a tiny attic room. Philibert Marquet de La Durbelliere is a stammering, erudite aristocratic who sells postcards outside a museum. One evening, he overcomes his own excruciating reticence to rescue Camille, unconscious, from her freezing garret, and install her in the large, ornate apartment he is taking care of downstairs. He already has an unlikely flatmate - the foulmouthed, talented young chef Franck, who is made more obnoxious by guilt about his beloved grandmother - who in turn forms an unlikely bond with his new friends. Apart, they may be hopeless, but together, this curious, damaged little quartet may be able to face the world.