When recent college graduate Lily Owens enrolls in the Civilisation Francaise course at the Sorbonne in 1982, she hopes to put a difficult childhood behind her and to find direction for her future. She moves into a mansion on the place des Vosges where her job is to help the housekeeper, Germaine, care for the elderly, half-blind Amenia Quinon, another ex-pat American. The three women live alone in this old house of silence and secrets, mostly revolving in their own worlds. When Lily extends an invitation to a friend, all of their lives are upended. Moving, sometimes humorous and always engrossing, Civilisation Francaise is a powerful story about facing our past, discovering a future, and the meaning of home.