In June of 1937 Elizabeth Bishop, still a young woman and not yet one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century, arrives in France with her college roommates. They are in search of an escape - and inspiration - far from the protective world of Vassar College, where they were expected to find a husband and begin a quiet, proper life. But the world is changing, and the larger threats of fascism and occupation are looming. In the City of Light, they meet upper-crust expatriates who not only bring them along on a life-changing adventure, but also introduce them to an underground world of rebellion that will alter the course of Elizabeth's life forever.