Irena left Prague in 1968, hoping for a better life in Paris. But neither there nor here does she feel at home. And without a home, she cannot find herself. Until she meets Josef, who also fled from Prague and was once Irena's lover. With him, Irena hopes to share memories and embark on a new life. The unsentimental melancholic Milan Kundera masterfully tells the story of exile and home and the sad impossibility of return.