Set in Paris shortly after World War II, L'Amerique recounts the fortitude of one Parisian family in a nation humiliated by defeat and torn by recriminations. It is above all the story of Jeanot, a boy raised by disparate people in a middle-class apartment building, and the journey that will take him to L'Amerique, where dreams come true, but rarely as expected. Jeanot s world is peopled by his great aunt Tatie, who sleeps with her hat on, her detestable maid Guenole, and Kharkov, the building s White Russian concierge. And then there are his extraordinary friends, Dede and Babette in Paris, and KC and Robert in America. L Amerique is a story of growing up in a country with little to offer its people, and of coming of age in a strange mythical land of too many promises.