Plot Summary?
We’re just getting started.

Add this title to our requested Study Guides list!
SuperSummary Logo
Plot Summary

The Room on Rue Amélie

Guide cover placeholder
Plot Summary

The Room on Rue Amélie

Kristin Harmel

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

Plot Summary
The Room on Rue Amélie (2018), a historical novel by Kristin Harmel, centers on a Jewish teenager, an American woman, and an RAF pilot who cross paths during World War II, who must put aside their differences and join forces if they want to survive the violence. Critics praise the book for its blend of emotional depth, complex themes, and believable drama. Harmel is a bestselling historical novelist and freelance reporter. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Florida. The Room on Rue Amélie is her most popular novel.

The book begins in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1939. The three main characters are Charlotte Dacher, Ruby Benoit, and Thomas Clarke. Eleven-year-old Charlotte lives in constant fear for her life, attempting to conceal her Jewish identity from the Nazis. Ruby, an idealistic young newlywed, wants to protect her new life from the horrors of war. Thomas, a British fighter pilot, is determined to make a difference and to fight for the people he’s lost.

The book opens as Ruby meets her soon-to-be husband, Marcel Benoit. A very handsome and honorable Frenchman, he proposes soon after meeting her. He loves Ruby’s fiercely independent spirit and he promises to never hold her back. Once they’re married, they move to Paris, planning to build a successful new life together. However, when France declares war, the conflict puts an unexpected strain on their marriage.



Ruby wants to fight against Hitler and the Nazis. She claims that just because she is a woman doesn’t mean she is incapable of supporting the war effort. Marcel, however, doesn’t want her to leave the house. He tells her that war is a man’s game and she is safer indoors. He blames her American heritage for her outspoken nature. Even when she asks him about the war, he won’t tell her anything.

Deeply unhappy, Ruby wonders if Marcel regrets marrying her now; she doesn’t think their marriage will survive the war. When she becomes pregnant, she hopes that the news will save their marriage. Marcel, however, is bitterly disappointed. He leaves one day and simply doesn’t come home. Ruby ends up losing her baby.

Ruby finds out that, in the end, Marcel didn’t abandon her—he’s dead. Devastated, she doesn’t know how to support herself without him. With nothing to do other than fret about Marcel and her financial future, she turns her attention to the war effort. She doesn’t want to return home to America. She knows the only way she can make a difference is by staying in Paris and fighting from the front line.



Meanwhile, Charlotte struggles under the weight of the Nazi occupation. Jewish people lose their jobs and are forced from their homes. They have no rights or money, and the Nazis force them to wear yellow stars everywhere they go. She hears rumors about mass deportation, but she doesn’t believe them. In the meantime, she befriends Ruby, who promises to look after her if anything happens to her parents.

One day, Ruby discovers the truth about Marcel’s business in Paris. Part of the Resistance against the Nazis, he facilitated the safe passage of wounded soldiers along the Escape Line. The Escape Line, manned by civilians, is a safe passageway for wounded Allied soldiers. The civilians help the soldiers travel along this line from France to Spain where they receive medical treatment before re-joining the war effort. When Ruby finds out about Marcel’s role in the Resistance, she steps up and takes his place.

Meanwhile, everything falls apart for Charlotte’s family. The Nazis take her parents away and she knows she will probably never see them again. Despite the danger, Ruby hides Charlotte in her own apartment. She makes Charlotte promise to stay indoors because they will both die if they’re discovered. She doesn’t tell Charlotte about her role in the Resistance because she doesn’t want to worry her.



In the meantime, Ruby finds Thomas, a seriously wounded soldier. He’s too sick to transport to Spain, and so Ruby offers to look after him. She takes him home and tends to his wounds, vowing to keep him alive by any means necessary. The more time Ruby spends with Thomas, the more attractive she finds him. They fall in love. Around the same time, Charlotte meets a young boy she can’t help falling for.

Despite how much he loves Ruby, Thomas must return to the front line. He promises to find her again and, once the war is over, they can get married. Thomas, however, doesn’t survive the war. He dies in a plane crash and he doesn’t see Ruby again before the accident. By this time, Ruby knows that she is carrying Thomas’s baby, but she is captured by the Nazis and dies in a concentration camp. Charlotte survives and lives a long and prosperous life.

Continue your reading experience

SuperSummary Plot Summaries provide a quick, full synopsis of a text. But SuperSummary Study Guides — available only to subscribers — provide so much more!

Join now to access our Study Guides library, which offers chapter-by-chapter summaries and comprehensive analysis on more than 5,000 literary works from novels to nonfiction to poetry.

Subscribe

See for yourself. Check out our sample guides:

Subscribe

Plot Summary?
We’re just getting started.

Add this title to our requested Study Guides list!

A SuperSummary Plot Summary provides a quick, full synopsis of a text.

A SuperSummary Study Guide — a modern alternative to Sparknotes & CliffsNotes — provides so much more, including chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and important quotes.

See the difference for yourself. Check out this sample Study Guide: