The French Girl

Set against the evolving backdrop of the 70's, this coming-of-age novel tells the story of an 11-year old girl, Etoile, who lives in an impoverished fishing village in Massachusetts and is being raised by her 16-year old pregnant sister while their alcoholic mother plunges further and further into despair. When their mother is found dead, Etoile is sent away by the state to live with a distant cousin, Giselle, whom she's never met. Giselle lives in New Hampshire in a liberal college community with her lesbian partner, Jean, a professor of women's studies at the college. 

Etoile is suddenly plunged into a world so far removed from what she knows and must shed her prejudices and fears as these three strangers struggle to become a family. Meanwhile, Etoile's sister wreaks havoc through her antics at the home for unwed mothers she is placed in, all at the expense of the nuns who run it.

Through patience, love, finding common ground, and the support of Giselle and Jean's friends, the three succeed and learn to be a family - until the state announces Etoile must be removed from Giselle and Jean's care because of their relationship.