A slowly unfolding novel of American au pair Rosie, escaping from a kind of heartbreak into the anonymity of France under the not always welcoming guidance of the Tivot family. Rosie's at first tentative assertions into an unfamiliar language -- a process that mirrors her own steps to better articulate her feelings and needs -- have the surprising effect of bringing the Tivot family closer, but in ways that Rosie, hiding from deeper emotions of her own, struggles to welcome or affirm. She unwittingly becomes a meeting place and a conduit for the varying desires of the family, which she neither expects nor always desires. As Rosie learns to navigate various cultures and multiple languages, she eventually translates herself from older ideas about what she wanted for her own life into a world that she can carry as her own. A beautifully understated novel.