Natalja grows up in Russia just before World War I. After her parents separate early, she moves to Paris with her mother - Natalja becomes Nathalie. Later, when she spends her holidays with her father and his jealous stepmother in Switzerland, the place of his political asylum, the girl matures suddenly: homeless and without a stable reference person, Nathalie Sarraute becomes a keen observer of human emotions and obsessions. Her autobiographically motivated narrative of childhood among Russian emigrants in Paris anticipates many themes that would preoccupy the great writer Sarraute throughout her life: the rejection-laden relationship with her mother, the constant search for home, and the deep trust in the power of language. An unyielding doppelgänger draws out forgotten memories in their conversation.