Set in Paris shortly after World War II, L'Amérique recounts the fortitude of one Parisian family in a nation humiliated by defeat and torn by recriminations. It is above all the story of Jeanot, a boy raised by disparate people in a middle-class apartment building, and the journey that will take him to L'Amérique, where dreams come true, but rarely as expected.

Jeanot's world is peopled by his great aunt Tatie, who sleeps with her hat on, her detestable maid Guénolé, and Kharkov, the building's White Russian concierge. And then there are his extraordinary friends, Dédé and Babette in Paris, and KC and Robert in America.

L'Amérique is a story of growing up in a country with little to offer its people, and of coming of age in a strange mythical land of too many promises.