How many times can a person be uprooted and expected to continue living? The roots were born in France but rummaging in the past may lead to more stories than they planned to face. Thus, the investigation of a certain letter, a certain trip, a certain marriage, brings with it the uncontrollable avalanche of the past: from Mexico City to the French colony in Veracruz, to the Savoyard towns in the middle of the Alps, to the military campaign in Algeria and Tunisia. A novel about identity, exile, uprooting, love, lost illusions and persistence of memory.