Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with
her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not
before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's
apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia
Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's
past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail
of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds
herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term
in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's
past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate
her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of
France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround
this painful episode.