Life is full of promise for Claire, a successful photographer in her late thirties, who has recently embarked on a happy marriage to Adrian, a brilliant art historian. But the past has a way of intruding when one least expects it, & Claire finds herself suddenly stricken with severe panic attacks. They threaten to keep her from the work she loves. When Adrian proposes she join him in Paris where he plans to research a new book on formal French gardens, Claire jumps at the chance. Her mother, Dolly, once lived in Paris & her tragic death when Claire was only 12 came on the heels of Dolly's return from the City of Lights. To make sense of her own recent troubles, Claire believes she must learn what happened to her mother in France. Claire retraces Dolly's footsteps in Paris & in the vast garden at Ermenonville, where Dolly, an admirer of the philosophy of Jean Jacques Rousseau, had come to pay homage at his shrine. Claire's stay in France, shadowed by Rousseau's spirit, is filled with more than one unexpected discovery as she, Adrian, & their friends navigate the tricky terrain of love, marriage, friendship & parenthood.