It begins in the year 1995, in the perspective of an old woman who must confront the secret she'd kept hidden from herself and her son for decades. She has a trunk in the attic, something that she insists on bringing with her. Her son doesn't understand the meaning of it or the life that she had hidden from prying eyes for many years as she tried to keep the memories of how she and her family had lived in occupied France during World War II at bay.

We are then introduced to Vianne and Isabelle Rossignol--two sisters who were abandoned after their mother's death by their father who was damaged by World War I. The novel follows both Isabelle--a headstrong, naive girl--and Vianne--a family woman whose husband went off to war leaving her and their young daughter Sophie alone.

When the Vichy government is forced to give in to the Nazi's, Isabelle wants to take part in an undertaking to liberate France. From her sister's home, she takes off to France to live with their father and works to bring liberty back to France. Vianne watches her country crumble around her from the sidelines, and just tries to survive with her daughter. She must fight her own battles, as those around her are stolen away and others killed. She billets two Nazis in her home, doing only what she must to keep her family intact.

Kristin Hannah's "The Nightingale" is so expertly written and the description is so vivid, that I felt like I was right there along side the Rossignol sisters. I am most impressed by this novel, the first piece of work I have read by Hannah. Eerie, realistic, and heart throbbing, I am left with heavy heart for the characters of the book and slightly taken off guard for whom the narrator actually turned out to be in the end. If you don't read "The Nightingale" you are missing out.