Framboise remembers her difficult relationship with her mother and two siblings as well as her dangerous friendship with a young German officer.

The other is present-day France, now following the life of the widowed Framboise Simon, having returned to the village of her childhood from which her family was expelled during the Second World War.

Framboise opens a small restaurant, cooking the recipes left to her by her mother, whilst concealing her identity, lest she be recognized as the daughter of the woman who once brought shame and tragedy upon the village.

As with her other works, Blackberry Wine and Chocolat, Joanne Harris places strong emphasis on the symbolic and emotional importance of food and cooking throughout the novel.

For Framboise's mother, cooking is a means of expressing her love for her children, whereas others use food as a weapon, for bartering and blackmail.

Food also serves its purpose as a gateway to the past and is a significant key to tying the two time lines together.

Their mother, Mirabelle Dartigen, was a difficult woman, prone to crippling migraines and more tender with her fruit trees than with her own children.

When the war came and the Germans occupied Les Laveuses, Mirabelle had to be tougher than ever; the children, with no-one to supervise them, ran wild, eventually falling under the spell of a young German soldier, Tomas, who first bribed them with black-market goods like oranges or chocolate, then manipulated them into secretly giving him information about their friends and neighbours.

Eventually, as the truth emerges, she learns how to face down the bullies who threaten her, as well as to forgive herself and her mother, to give herself permission to love, to reconnect with her two estranged daughters and to finally put the past to rest.

He is an ambivalent character, pursuing his own interests, indifferent to Nazi ideology, unafraid of the negative consequences of his actions.

He resurfaces when Framboise returns to town, decades later, and helps her to deal and cope with Laure and Yannick's campaign to make her sell them her mother's story.

She believes in treating children like fruit trees - they benefit from harsh pruning - and so gives them no sign of affection.