Marie Noël does not know who her father is, nor does she know why her mother abandoned her immediately after her birth and left her in the care of Ranleys, nor does she know what prompted this mother to send a letter ten years later demanding her daughter. The girl travels into the unknown, living with an emotionally cold mother, tormented by memories of the past. After she grows up, she goes to Boston to complete her studies, and marries an innovative jazz musician, while the question, "Who am I? And who is my family?" continues to haunt her in all the places she lives, and so she seeks to understand what happened before she was born, but a series of dark secrets... And the elusive facts are faced. In this Prix Carbet de la Caraibe novel, Maryse Conde writes a tale of lost love and unwanted motherhood, capturing the voice of the Caribbean diaspora with grace and sweetness.