This book is about a museum in Paris where people donate items that reminds them of broken promises and betrayals in the past. This is where the reader meets Laure the curator and owner of the museum. But Laure has a past which includes time spent in Prague as an au pair to a family there, where she fled after the death of her father. Laure discovers Tomas a dissident musician at Anatomie a puppet theatre used to promote propaganda against the state. Laure and Tomas embark on a passionate love affair which will have terrible repercussions. The love story of Laure and Tomas weaves in and out the book very well. I wasn’t sure about this book at the beginning but the writing reels you in to a dark and repressed nation under the rule of Russia and communism. It is a cruel society where neighbours spy on their neighbours and where brutal punishments are meted out to those who disobey. This book makes you think of the freedoms in this country, that we all take for granted.