After 23 years of working to create a life-saving swimsuit, grieving-yet-determined inventor Claire is abruptly fired when a model is injured by her latest faulty prototype. Still mourning the death of her beloved sommelier husband, David (who died of a rare genetic disorder called Sitosterolemia), Claire now faces unemployment, financial uncertainty, and the fear of losing her home. While drowning her sorrows, she discovers a photo of a boy named Luca in her husband’s jacket pocket: The child bears a striking resemblance to him. Suspecting an affair and worried the child might have inherited David’s condition, Claire travels to a vineyard in France, hoping to find the boy’s mother, Sophie. Instead, she learns that Sophie had passed away the previous year. Although Claire learns of this tragedy through an innkeeper, the man who really explains this tragedy is Gilbert, Sophie’s steadfast and guarded brother who has been running the vineyard in her stead. Once he hears of David’s death, he softens and explains the truth to Claire. As Claire navigates this bittersweet revelation, she’s forced to confront long-buried lies she had been telling David and herself. Throughout her marriage, she resisted the idea of becoming a mother (shaped by her own neglectful mother) and doubts about her own capacity to parent. Meeting Luca—curious, bright, and full of life—challenges those fears and awakens a desire to become part of something lasting. Borchert’s novel gives us no clean-cut resolutions or instant transformations. This is a story about slow, sometimes painful personal growth, as Claire’s journey is filled with hesitation, regret, and sorrow. Gilbert is given a quiet strength that resonates with the reader, and Luca’s openness helps make the vineyard a place of potential healing and transformation for Claire. But in this poignant and redemptive personal journey, Claire must decide whether to remain an outsider or embrace the family she never expected to find.
