Renée hides her love of philosophy and literature from tenants while working as a concierge in a wealthy Parisian building.

Paloma, a 12-year-old resident, secretly plans to die by suicide on her 13th birthday.

Renée recalls how her husband Lucien grew sick and died, leaving her entirely alone.

Doctor Chabrot informs Renée that food critic Pierre Arthens has only 48 hours to live.

Pierre Arthens dies and his apartment is put up for sale, the first time in the building's history.

Kakuro Ozu arrives as the new owner of the Arthens apartment and treats Renée with immediate and attentive respect.

Renée learns the new tenant's full name is Kakuro Ozu, sharing a surname with her beloved filmmaker.

Kakuro sends Renée a rare edition of Anna Karenina as a gift, exposing her hidden literary passion.

Kakuro invites Renée to have dinner at his apartment to discuss their shared intellectual interests.

Mozart's Requiem plays from Kakuro's toilet flusher, and Renée and Kakuro erupt in unguarded, shared laughter.

Renée and Kakuro talk well into the night, discovering their deep shared love of art, film, and literature.

Colombe sends Paloma to Renée's apartment and Renée invites Paloma in for tea, beginning a lasting friendship.

Renée and Kakuro watch The Munekata Sisters together, pausing to discuss the camellia scene Renée has always treasured.

Renée runs into traffic to stop Gegéne from being hit and is fatally struck by a laundry truck.

Paloma abandons her suicide plan after Renée's death, vowing to find the always within the never.

Renée Michel is a concierge in a wealthy Parisian building who conceals her vast intellectual life from the tenants she serves, while twelve-year-old resident Paloma Josse secretly plans to die by suicide before her thirteenth birthday. The death of prominent tenant Pierre Arthens puts his apartment up for sale, setting in motion the novel's central catalyst: the arrival of Kakuro Ozu, a Japanese man who immediately sees through Renée's protective façade. Kakuro's gift of a rare edition of Anna Karenina and his invitation to dinner force Renée out of her solitary shell, leading to a dinner where shared laughter over Mozart's Requiem confirms a profound and unexpected kinship. Meanwhile, Paloma is sent to Renée's apartment by her sister and finds in the concierge a true kindred spirit, giving both women something they have long lacked. Renée's death, as she throws herself into traffic to save a neighbor, devastates Paloma but ultimately inspires her to abandon her suicide plan and choose life.

The headline events that drive the story from beginning to end.

Paloma writes her first journal entry about the beauty and present-moment power of the Māori haka at a rugby match.

Renée grows up poor, drops out of school at age 12, and marries at 17 after meeting her husband through her brothers.

Renée develops her cherry plum test to determine whether a new book truly deserves her passionate intellectual attention.

Renée reads Edmund Husserl for a month and concludes that phenomenology is even more depressing than nihilism.

Renée recalls finding Jean Arthens, deep in drug addiction, standing transfixed by the camellias in the courtyard.

Renée watches Ozu's The Munekata Sisters alone and is deeply moved by the image of camellias growing on temple moss.

Manuela tells Renée that Kakuro has hired her as his cleaner and named his cats after Anna Karenina characters.

Paloma and her friend Marguerite have tea with Kakuro and meet his five-year-old great-niece Yoko.

Manuela brings Renée a dress belonging to a recently deceased woman for Renée to wear to Kakuro's dinner.

Renée visits a hairdresser before dinner and is genuinely surprised by how much she likes her new haircut.

Kakuro drops by Renée's apartment for tea and joins Manuela and Renée in casual conversation until Paloma also arrives.

Renée sees a photograph of Kakuro's late wife Sanae, and they discover they are both widows whose spouses died of cancer.

Paloma holds Renée's hand while Renée cries over her sister Lisette, and Renée realizes she has found a true friend.

Jean Arthens, now recovered from addiction, visits Renée and credits her camellias as a guiding light in his darkest times.

Kakuro sends Renée a beautiful new dress, shoes, and scarf as gifts before their restaurant dinner, and she cries silently.

While the main plot turns on Kakuro's arrival, the novel is built from a rich layer of smaller but meaningful events that reveal who Renée and Paloma truly are. Renée's backstory — her poverty, her self-taught reading life, and her private rituals like the cherry plum test — explains why she guards herself so fiercely, while Paloma's journals capture her searching eye for beauty in the world around her. Kakuro's integration into the building's life is gradual and warm, shown through Manuela's reports, the gathering for tea, and the careful preparations Renée makes for their evenings together. The friendship between Renée and Paloma deepens in quiet, intimate moments, including Renée weeping over her sister as Paloma holds her hand. Jean Arthens's unexpected return to thank Renée for her camellias, and Kakuro's parting gift of a dress and shoes, mark the emotional crescendo of Renée's transformation just before her death.

The significant supporting moments that fill out each narrator's world.

Paloma decides to write the Journal of the Movement of the World as her personal search for something worth living for.

A teacher calling Renée by her name on her first day of school sparks a lifelong awakening of her consciousness.

Paloma notices a philosophy book fall from Renée's spilled bag and begins to suspect the concierge is concealing her true intellect.

Paloma coins the hedgehog metaphor, describing Renée as prickly and forbidding outside but secretly refined and elegant within.

Paloma corrects a dinner guest's mistake about the board game Go, gets reprimanded by her father, but resolves to build rather than deconstruct.

Paloma argues that grammar is its own art form rather than a communication tool, earns detention, and feels sorry for those who disagree.

Renée physically shudders when Kakuro casually quotes Anna Karenina during their very first meeting, involuntarily betraying her hidden self.

Paloma realizes her plan to set the apartment on fire could endanger Kakuro, who lives in the apartment directly below.

Renée immediately regrets the polite but evasive thank-you note she sends Kakuro after receiving his gift of Anna Karenina.

Renée sees a Dutch still-life painting in Kakuro's apartment and chooses to respond honestly rather than feign ignorance.

Kakuro invites Renée to a birthday restaurant dinner and she declines out of class anxiety, visibly shocking and disappointing Kakuro.

Paloma demands to know why Renée refused Kakuro's restaurant invitation, forcing Renée to confront her own fears aloud.

Paloma watches a single flower petal fall from a bouquet and realizes beauty can exist in time, not only in movement.

Kakuro looks Renée in the eyes at their restaurant dinner and tells her directly that she is not her sister.

Renée weeps with joy upon realizing Paloma betrayed her secret about Lisette to Kakuro in order to set her free.

Beneath the novel's quiet surface lies a series of decisive moments in which characters see themselves or others clearly for the first time. Paloma's resolve to document beauty in the world is the fragile thread keeping her alive, while a childhood teacher calling Renée by her name is the spark that ignites Renée's entire inner life. The two narrators unknowingly converge: Paloma spots a clue to Renée's hidden intelligence and coins the hedgehog metaphor, while Renée physically shudders when Kakuro quotes Anna Karenina, betraying herself to him instantly. The dinner at Kakuro's apartment is a string of revelations — Renée choosing honesty over pretense at every turn — and her refusal of his restaurant invitation forces Paloma to confront Renée's deepest fear. Kakuro's declaration that Renée is not her sister shatters the wall she has built around herself for decades, and Renée's tearful joy upon realizing Paloma helped engineer that moment marks the true turning point of her life.