A thirteen-year-old girl and her alcoholic mother Lily travel to Europe and settle do in a medieval village, Haut de Cagnes, in the southern part of France, a village occupied by expatriates, artists and an international set of lesbians. Lily becomes involved with a charismatic Irish woman, Noel and before long the three live together in 'Le Cave' an apartment underneath her house. To the teenager, it's a wonderful life as she gets to ride a motorbike through fields of carnations behind the village, go to the local stable and jump horses, and ride my bicycle for miles in every direction. But she is worried about what she might come home to. Then the road leads to California and a new set of trying circumstances challenge both the maturing young girl and her mother.