On her first night at SOAP, she meets her neighbor Meredith (Mer), who consoles her after finding Anna crying in her room.

After Anna leaves Meredith's room, she bumps into a handsome boy who introduces himself as Étienne St. Clair, and has an English accent.

The next morning at breakfast, Mer invites Anna to sit with her and her friends; Rashmi and boyfriend Josh, as well as Étienne from the night before – he is known by everyone as St. Clair.

Anna can neither read nor speak French, and feels inferior among her classmates, leading to St. Clair's assistance in ordering breakfast.

After a week in SOAP Josh, Rashmi, St. Clair and Mer is surprised to learn that Anna hasn't yet gone out of campus to explore Paris.

One day, when the group was hanging out in a cemetery, St. Clair learns that his mother is dying due to cervical cancer, and his father doesn't want him to meet her.

Anna tries her best to cheer a bed stricken St. Clair to celebrate Thanksgiving and stop sulking by convincing him that her mother wouldn't want to see him like that.

Anna rants about her father, her family, Bridge's betrayal to St. Clair over phone calls and Emails every day.

Critical reception for the book was generally positive,[3][4] with NPR naming it one of the "Year's Best Teen Reads" for 2010.

[8] Booklist commented that while the book was "an absorbing and enjoyable read," it also had "predictable crossed-signal plot twists".