In 1930's Paris the music is jazz, the art is experimental, and American ex-patriots of color are welcomed. Aspiring journalist Vera Clay packs her suitcase and travels from Philadelphia to France, where her Aunt Evangeline set new roots a decade earlier.

While the language, culture, and self-acceptance feel foreign to Vera, the possibility of love is familiar. It is Paris during the 1930's. Cigarette smoke curled above the heads of café, book store, and jazz club habitués carry rumors of an approaching firestorm. Some Parisians prepare to defend their lives and country. Others join the tidal wave of hatred threatening to immolate most of Europe.