Wes and Laura open their front door late at night to find a police officer with their twelve-year-old daughter, Helen. She is in a long t-shirt and little else, carrying a brown bag with her. The officer informs Wes and Laura that Helen was at a party with other kids where they were inhaling nitrous oxide. One of the kids had a bad reaction and Helen stayed to make sure he was okay. Helen also had someone try to pierce her nose. Laura wonders if her worrying and helicopter parenting of Helen and seven-year-old Kit was a parental flaw of hers. She worried about things like electrocution, physical injuries, and SIDS. Drugs, piercings, and sneaking out had not been on her radar at all. Wes suggests that the four of them go and stay in Paris for the summer, seeing as Helen has always wanted to go and that a much-needed life disruption was in order. In France, Laura and Wes feel somewhat out of place and uncomfortable that they cannot speak French but they watch Helen blossom. She speaks French fluidly and fluently, giving taxi cabs addresses, translating information, asking for directions, and negotiating prices. The family stays in a very old but beautiful apartment, with the sisters sharing one room and Wes and Laura sharing the other. They spend their time walking the streets of Paris hand-in-hand, eating chocolate and cheese and spending time with each other. Laura and Wes each have their own prepaid phones and they later get one for the sisters so the two can go out into the city together in the afternoons. Laura wonders how Wes knew that Paris would be good for Helen, as Helen has been growing so much as a person and developing "panache." The month of August rolls around and while Laura had thoroughly enjoyed everything in July, August brings a heat wave, dirt, a reduced quality of food, and a plethora of interesting smells. Laura is more than ready to go home. Helen comments on how much she wants to stay in Paris and Laura thinks of how much their daughter has changed in Paris, worrying that things will be as they always were back home. In the dead of the night, Wes receives a call on his American cell phone, saying that Helen is in the hospital after falling and hitting her head on the pavement. Laura watches Kit while Wes goes to the ICU. Helen had been using her mother's American phone the whole time, texting and taking pictures to send back to the United States, and swapping it out with her father's phone when the battery drained. The hospital had found his number in the contact list and called him. Helen's head is heavily bandaged with an air tube. Wes wants to say that he wants to start over with her and that he won't be mad at her for anything that happened. He wants her to be able to tell him anything but she is unconscious and the doctors don't know when she'll wake up. He erases all of the photos and text messages sent and received by Helen. Laura and Kit arrive at the hospital and Laura proceeds to grills a weeping Kit. Nobody has any idea how Helen ended up in the hospital or what happened to her. Laura calls the people who dropped Helen off at the hospital cowards but Wes sees it as anything but. He remembers Helen staying with the kid who had an allergic reaction to nitrous oxide and thinks that someone safely dropping Helen off is the universe repaying her. Kit reveals that every night for the past week, Helen has been going out to visit some French boys whom she had met on one of the sisters' walks together. Helen would take one of the parents' American phones and leave the French one with Kit so that she could call and have Kit open the door for her again later. Laura listens, thinking that Kit was supposed to be the wild child with Helen protecting her and that this is the result of her trying to get her daughters to get along. Laura hates Paris—she wants to track down those boys and go home immediately. They make arrangements for Wes to stay in Paris with Helen while Kit and Laura go back home for the start of school. Wes moves into a different apartment and takes a leave of absence at work. Kit tearfully says goodbye to her unconscious sister telling her "I promise" over and over. Wes wonders what this promise is but Kit shuts up and Laura and Kit leave. Helen goes in and out of consciousness slowly, as the sedative wears off. Parts of her face react more and more. Wes tells himself that Helen was beyond worry, as the worst had already happened to her. Laura and Wes talk about Kit and her extracurriculars or Wes and his hospital visits and walks around Paris. Wes wonders what Helen might want from the city and wonders how to bring it to her. Because although the girl in front of him is not one he knows anymore, she must still long for things. He buys Helen art supplies so she can paint with him and is encouraged when she takes to it. She paints abstract art and Wes excitedly shares this news about her improved manner with Laura. Laura is not as thrilled, wondering what good a slight improvement is if they don't know her full life prognosis. Laura begins to say out loud that she wishes that Helen had died instead but quickly stops herself. Wes signs himself up for the gym and begins to imagine a compelling life in Paris, just himself, Helen, and a new girlfriend perhaps. After three weeks, Helen drastically improves. She holds her own head up, responds when people speak, and squeezes people's hands in response whenever her name is said. She continues to paint and the abstract art looks more and more like Paris itself, all stained-glass, broken buildings, gardens, and monuments in the sunshine. She draws faces and even signs her own name. Wes saves a few of these paintings to send back to Laura. One day, a doctor, Dr. Delarche, approaches Wes and informs him that her husband is a documentary filmmaker. She asks if her husband can make a mini documentary on Helen and her painting, to which Wes agrees. He knows that Laura wouldn't approve and doesn't tell her, because he also knows that it is something Helen would love as she loved attention. She wanted to exist as the most interesting girl there ever was and Wes knew that this documentary would offer just that. Dr. Delarche and Wes talk for a bit, Wes aware of his attraction to her, until she turns the conversation to his family and Helen's care in the United States. He leaves the hospital and gets to the gym, contemplating how it would be to live in Paris with Helen. He knows it would be extremely difficult. Paris is not wheelchair friendly, nor are there any protections for disabled individuals. But he also allows himself to imagine himself and Helen painting all sorts of things, with Helen improving by the day. He can't picture them living in America anymore. Laura calls that evening to say that she is flying to Paris in two days after getting a last-minute flight ticket. She would leave Kit with neighbors. Wes waits at the airport for Laura, all nerves and anticipation, but any trace of animosity or bad thought he had had about her in the past few weeks melts away at the sight of her. This is who he had always loved. Laura doesn't exactly believe that Helen is improving through her painting, especially through the YouTube video that Kit had shown her and Wes is desperate for her to see the improvement. Laura thinks that someone else is painting for her instead. Helen is still unable to speak and has a dazed and cheerful expression on her face. Laura is in disbelief that her daughter is in such a condition. Wes steadies a paintbrush in Helen's hand and starts her off with a painting. Laura asks him to let go of his hand and Helen drops her own hand from the painting immediately. Helen still makes no sound or has no reaction, her hand constantly dropping as Wes tries again and again to make it sit on the page. Wes has no idea how to convince Laura that Helen really did do those paintings. Laura thinks that the four of them need to be home, that Paris is no longer serving Wes nor Helen any longer. She wishes Helen could be their miracle girl but Wes already thinks she is. Helen may not be able to physically move but she can think about the things she loves and wants and the experiences she has had. Wes senses all of this and imagines how Helen might be asking him to not let her mother take her away. Laura has not once looked Helen in the eye since walking into the room but when has she ever? Laura suddenly says that she has only just begun to forgive Helen. Wes wonders what for. Wes realizes that he has had to convince himself of certain things that were not true every day, in order to just wake up. He feels some of his imaginings and beliefs crumble. Of course they would bring Helen back to the States. They would seek care for her and expert advice on her condition. She might never walk again. Her body was broken but not failing. She would be theirs for the rest of their lives and then Kit would take care of her, something that Laura had seen from day one and had been crushed by, only just beginning to shift the weight of that realization from her chest. Wes truly believes Helen painted herself and looks at his wife, looking forward to convincing her and keeping the happiness in their lives.