Resourceful fourteen-year-old Odette is on the move again, traveling as a stowaway
on a cheese cart with her hapless mother, Anneline. They are in Burgundy, France,
in 1799, fl eeing yet another calamity caused by Anneline (who is prone to killing people
accidentally). At dawn they fi nd themselves in a town called Nevers, which is fi lled with
eccentric characters, including a man who obsessively smells hands, another who dreams
of becoming a chicken, and a donkey that keeps the town awake at night, braying about
his narrow life. As Odette establishes a home in an abandoned guardhouse, she makes
a friend in the relaxed Nicois and fi nds work as a midwife’s assistant. She and Nicois
uncover a mystery that may lead to riches and, more important for Odette, a sense of
belonging.
