Louisa Carmichael has had it. After her boss stabs her in the back by giving the promotion he’d promised her to a less qualified co-worker, Lou quits. But she only makes it as far as her car before panic sets in. At twenty-eight, she has little to show for her life. Who is she without her job, and what will she do with herself if she’s not working? Has she destroyed all chance of ever attaining the career for which she’s sacrificed so much? Fortunately for Lou, she has the perfect excuse to avoid these hard questions: her trip to France for her best friend’s wedding celebration.

There she meets Yves Betancourt, a handsome French man who also happens to be the most off-putting person she’s ever encountered. Yet Yves has his good points, and Lou is fascinated by his passion for the work he does in a London lab, a job that sounds like something out of Lou’s dreams. One lonely night she takes him up on his offer to meet for a drink, confiding that she’s thinking of extending her trip to retrace the path her beloved grandfather took during his post-World War II tour of Normandy. When Yves offers to be her guide, Lou decides to throw caution to the wind and embrace life in a way she’s never before embraced it. The more time Lou spends with Yves, the more she begins to wonder why she’s so determined to deny herself a full life, romance, and the job she’s always wanted.