Sorbonne student Sandrine covers news as a part-time reporter for an American paper in Depression-era Paris. She banters with the Americans at the local bistro as red wine flows and stories grow in the telling. Early in 1934, with public outrage at government corruption peaking, she witnesses street riots by Far Right leagues that overthrow two French cabinets. The Third Republic is threatened. Spring brings adventure as Sandrine listens to sweet assurances whispered in the soft light of a Paris cafe. Summer brings midnight dancing to le hot jazz at swanky Longchamps racetrack. Days later, Sandrine joins the hard-partying Americans as they drink and dance their way through the festive streets of Paris on Bastille Day. In the fall, dark secrets from the 1920s French occupation of the German Rhineland cloud the present as the rising Nazi menace in Germany reveals unspoken threats. Destinies intersect in October 1934 when a Yugoslav king arrives in France for an important state visit.