Summary Isabelle assumes a false identity as Juliette Gervaise, codenamed the Nightingale, to lead four Allied airmen to Spain. They travel by train to the edge of the mountains; there, Isabelle asks a woman named Micheline Babineau if she can find a guide to lead them across the Pyrenees. A […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 19Summary and Analysis Chapter 18
Summary Isabelle disguises the RAF pilot, named Torrance MacLeish, in her father’s clothes and brings him with her to a resistance meeting. Although her resistance friends are initially angry with her for taking such a risk, they decide that they need a strategy to get these airmen safely out of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 18Summary and Analysis Chapter 17
Summary One of Vianne’s teaching colleagues, Monsieur Paretsky, is arrested for distributing an anti-German newspaper. Vianne speaks out against his arrest and is fired from her teaching job. When she returns home, Beck informs her he is leaving to visit his family in Germany. He offers her a glass of […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 17Summary and Analysis Chapter 16
Summary Vianne and Sophie learn that the Fourniers’ butcher shop has been taken from them because they are Jewish. Sophie objects to this injustice, but Vianne silences her. Sophie accuses her mother of being afraid. When they return home, Beck tells Vianne that he has received a letter from her […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 16Summary and Analysis Chapter 15
Summary When Isabelle leaves for Paris, Beck becomes friendlier, bringing home a fish to share with Vianne and Sophie. With Isabelle’s absence, Vianne realizes that the tension between her and Beck is gone, and she wonders if this is good or bad. Isabelle arrives in war-torn Paris and discovers that […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 15Summary and Analysis Chapter 14
Summary The story leaps forward again to Oregon in 1995, where Julien drives the elderly protagonist to her new home. As she settles into the retirement community, the woman finds a letter from Paris among her mail that contains an invitation to a passeurs’ reunion. She wonders how she can […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 14Summary and Analysis Chapter 13
Summary Henri brings a coded message to Vianne for Isabelle. Isabelle goes to meet with the members of the resistance group, who ask her to deliver a letter to Paris and then stay there in her father’s apartment as a courier for the resistance. She agrees to try although she […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 13Summary and Analysis Chapter 12
Summary Vianne wakes up early and catches Isabelle returning from delivering tracts. She accuses Isabelle of meeting a boy. That day at school, Vianne’s fears about the list she made for Beck are realized when everyone on the list is fired from their teaching job. Vianne goes to Beck’s office […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 12Summary and Analysis Chapter 11
Summary Later in the year, Vianne and Sophie are walking home from school when they meet Isabelle. Isabelle looks secretive, and Vianne wonders if she is sneaking out to meet a boy. When Sophie reaches for Isabelle’s basket, Isabelle slaps her hand away from the tracts hidden inside. They meet […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 11Summary and Analysis Chapter 10
Summary Rachel observes that Beck is handsome as he chops wood, and Vianne feels uncomfortably attracted to him. Meanwhile, the man who caught Isabelle vandalizing the propaganda poster takes her to a roomful of French resistance fighters, which is a relief to Isabelle, who thought she was being arrested. They […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 10