A deaf couple with their young son emigrates from a village in Southern Italy to Brooklyn, where their daughter is born. They do not teach their children sign language, while the communication difficulties within the family create numerous misunderstandings. Their divorce and return to Italy further complicate things for the girl. From one country to another, from the big city to the closed society of the village and later to Brexit-era London, she feels like a stranger everywhere.

“A coming-of-age story written with the same vitriol that Virginia Woolf used” (The Observer), inspired by the author's experiences. “Claudia Durastanti (b. 1984) throws a lifebuoy into the dark waters of memory. My favorite kind of literature, the kind that not only speaks to the world but penetrates it” (Ocean Vuong).