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 France. Isabelle volunteers to guide the airmen over the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain. The plan is dangerous, but the others agree to try it.

Gaetan joins their meeting; Isabelle realizes that he has been in Paris all along but has been avoiding her until now. Later that evening, Gaetan explains that he recommended her to the resistance group. Isabelle returns home to her father, who reveals that he knows she hid an airman and that he, too, works for the French resistance.

Analysis

When MacLeish thanks Isabelle for hiding him, he calls her brave; she, however, says that her resistance contacts will call her foolish for her actions. Indeed, as her meeting with the resistance proves, the line between bravery and foolishness is becoming increasingly blurred in Nazi-occupied France. The boundary between these two qualities is especially difficult for Isabelle to navigate as a woman: Risks that are likely to be lauded as bravery when they are undertaken by men like Gaetan are deemed foolish when a young woman such as Isabelle undertakes them.

Gaetan’s decision to abandon Isabelle and avoid seeing her exemplifies how war changes the nature of love. He avoids her because he cares for her: Being with her makes the thought of losing her more painful. He believes it is better to avoid love entirely than to risk the pain of losing loved ones in war.