Last Twilight in Paris

In 1953, Louise lives in an Oxfordshire town with her husband, Joe, feeling somewhat stifled by small-town life. Their house was built quickly after the war on a bomb site. From a distance, it looks nice, but Louise can see its flaws up close. The same can be said of her marriage. Joe drinks a lot and claims to be fine, but she can tell that his memories still haunt him. Neither Joe nor Louise have shared much about their wartime experiences, and it creates a “dark divide” between them. Louise sends Joe to bed and works on a puzzle. She checks on the children, Ewen and Phaedra, happy they’ve never known the anxiety of wartime.

The next day, Louise is restless. She takes the children to school, avoiding small talk with other mothers. She wonders why she cannot feel content with her life, as they do. Afterward, she goes to the thrift shop where she works part-time, greeting Midge, her octogenarian boss. 

Sifting through a crate of recently donated items, Louise finds a gold necklace with a half-heart charm, as though another necklace exists which consists of the other half. On the back, it is inscribed with the words “watch” and “me,” and she is sure she’s seen the necklace before. 

Louise has a flashback to London, 1944. After seeing a little girl whose parents were killed in a bombing, she decides to volunteer with the Red Cross. The volunteers come from all walks of life, from fine ladies to working-class girls. They pack boxes of food and supplies to be delivered to men in POW camps.

When Helaine was five, she nearly died of influenza. Though she recovered from the fever, the effects of the disease weakened her and made her susceptible to illness. For 13 years, her mother, Annette, confines her to their beautiful four-story townhouse. Though Annette tries to make the apartment lively and lovely, Helaine still feels caged by it. The library is her favorite room, as the books allow her mind to wander even though her body is trapped. Helaine loves to read and write stories. She identifies with Beth from Little Women. 

Whenever her father returns from an overseas trip, he quarantines in a nearby apartment before coming home, though Helaine knows he meets a lover. She knows this is common and that her mother pretends not to know. Helaine looks at her grandmother’s tea set and feels sad. After she got sick, she could no longer visit, and then her grandmother died when Helaine was nine. Helaine knows her mother loves her, but she’s aware of her parents’ disappointment that she will never bear children.

Now in 1938, Helaine asks her mother if she might go for a short walk. Helaine craves freedom, including freedom from her mother’s attention. Finally, Annette relents. Outside, the world seems brighter. As Helaine walks, she doubts her strength but knows she must continue. She peers through the windows of Lévitan, an elegant department store. When Helaine returns safely, her mother agrees to let her walk again tomorrow. 

The next time, she hears a cellist playing and looks in his window. When he looks up, she hurries away and trips on a cobblestone. He helps her up, and she feels an instant connection. He invites her to coffee, but she declines. He promises to play at the same time tomorrow. 

The next day, Helaine returns, and the cellist greets her with pastries and coffee. His name is Gabriel, and he plays with the Orchestre National. When Helaine tells him she loves to read and write, he encourages her to become a journalist. She mentions that her family is Jewish, though she knows antisemitism does exist in France. Gabriel worries for her, asking if her family will leave, but they’ve made their home in Paris and have no plans to relocate. She believes that nothing terrible could possibly happen to them in Paris. She declines his offer to see her home but promises to come again.

In 1953, Louise asks Midge if she can keep the necklace, certain it is the same one she saw during the war. Midge’s sister owns a jewelry store in London, and she might be able to tell Louise about it. When Louise mentions it to Joe, he is uninterested, admitting he doesn’t want to talk about the past. 

The next day, Louise goes to London, and painful memories rush back. She learns that the necklace is a Mizpah charm, inscribed with a phrase from the book of Genesis. They were common during the first World War. 

Louise flashes back to London, 1944. She walks into the Red Cross center and sees a notice asking for volunteers to deliver the care packages to POW camps. She introduces herself to Ian Shipley, and he explains that she’d be helping to distribute the boxes in occupied France. She can tell how driven he is by his passion and principles, and she finds this very attractive. He tells her they leave in the morning.

In 1938, Helaine and Gabriel continue meeting, but she doesn’t tell him about her illness or confinement. When he kisses her, she feels like a “real person” for the first time. She goes with him to his flat, and he plays the cello for her. Afterward, they make love, and he asks Helaine to marry him. He wants to speak with her parents, but she says he cannot, finally explaining their overprotectiveness. 

When she gets home, her father Otto is livid. Gabriel knocks on the door and says he’s come to ask for her hand. She wants to marry him, but her father orders Gabriel to leave. He yells at Annette for allowing the relationship to develop, and Helaine sees her mother’s fear. Her father refuses to sanction the marriage, but Helaine decides to leave with Gabriel. 

Helaine quickly packs a bag and checks to make sure she’s wearing the half-heart necklace her grandmother gave her. Helaine grabs the other half too, which Annette gave to Helaine after her grandmother died. Gabriel points out a pile of money that Annette left on the hall table for Helaine. 

As they walk away, Gabriel expresses his fear about how much Helaine is giving up, and she tells him that her childhood illness left her unable to bear children. He points out his own limp, the result of breaking his leg many years earlier, and says that they are “imperfectly perfect” for one another.

In 1953, Louise doesn’t want to go home yet. The more time she spends in London, the more she feels like her old self: Confident, independent, and purposeful. She spots a faded poster for an old play, showing her one-time friend, Franny. Franny’s eyes implore Louise to “Do something.” 

She remembers the events preceding Franny’s death, how she saw the actress standing close to the fence at the POW camp and taking something from a prisoner. Louise wants to find answers to her questions about the necklace and Franny’s death. She calls the Red Cross to ask Ian for help, and learns that he works for the Foreign Office. She goes to meet him, and they take tea, though she cannot forget his failure to support her when she needed him most, though their attraction was undeniable. 

Louise tells him about the necklace, and Ian recalls that a prisoner from the POW camp gave Franny a necklace and wanted her to deliver it to his wife in Paris. Later that same night, she was killed in a hit-and-run. He says the two events are not related, but Louise disagrees. She remembers how badly the man, an accomplished cellist, wanted Franny to take the necklace and believes it has something to do with her death. Ian tells Louise to come to Paris with him to search for clues, but she doesn’t think she can. He gives her his card and says he’ll make some inquiries.

Louise flashes back to 1944. She gets seasick on the crossing from England to the Continent and meets Franny Beck on the ship. Franny is a famous actress and singer, and she agreed to perform for the Germans if they let her perform for POWs too. Franny says it’s important for the Germans to know that outsiders are watching.

In 1939, Helaine and Gabriel don’t go hungry, but sometimes, they barely have enough. Nonetheless, she feels a contentment she has never felt before. They marry at the town hall, and she goes every Friday to hear him play. He composes a beautiful piece called “For Helaine.” 

War is coming, and he asks if she’d like to leave Paris, but she wants to stay. When Germany invades Poland, France declares war on Germany. Again, Gabriel suggests they leave, but Helaine points out that the borders will be impassable due to overcrowding. Gabriel fears that antisemites will be emboldened by the war, and he admits that he tried to enlist and was rejected because of his leg. 

In May 1940, Germany invades France. Within days, the Germans reach Paris, and Gabriel joins a resistance movement. Suddenly, the antisemitism that ran beneath polite society surfaces in graffiti, political cartoons, and newspaper editorials. One Friday, when Helaine goes to hear Gabriel play, an usher asks her to leave, citing the “current political situation [in which] it is no longer appropriate for Jews to attend the symphony” (102). Stunned, she leaves. Though Gabriel follows her, refusing to play if she cannot stay, she urges him to return, as his music is their livelihood. He does so, reluctantly.