Vianne Rocher

When Vianne Rocher and her daughter arrive in Lansquenet, the village priest is horrified by her plans to open a chocolate shop. The village is divided when Vianne suggests an Easter Chocolate Festival, but who will triumph, the Church or Vianne?

Seeking refuge in the cobbled streets of Montmartre, Yanne and her daughters live peacefully above their little chocolate shop. Nothing unusual marks them out. Then into their lives blows Zozie de l'Alba, the lady with the lollipop shoes.

When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from beyond the grave, she has no choice but to follow the wind that blows her back to Lansquenet. But returning to her old home, Vianne is completely unprepared for what she is to find there. Women veiled in black, the scent of spices and a minaret on the bank of the river.

Vianne Rocher has settled down in Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, the place that once rejected her. With her daughter Rosette, she runs her chocolate shop in the square and is part of the community. But when Narcisse, the florist, dies, leaving a plot of land to Rosette, the sleepy village is once more thrown into disarray. Then the opening of a mysterious new shop in the place of the florist's - one that mirrors the chocolaterie, seems to herald a change: a confrontation, a turbulence - even, perhaps, a murder . . .

On a warm July evening, Sylviane Rochas scatters her mother's ashes in New York and lets the changing wind blow her to the French seaside town of Marseille.

For the first time in her life, Vianne holds the future in her own hands. Charming her way into a job as a waitress in a local bistrot, she knows that she is not here to stay - when her child is born in a few months, she must be gone.

As she discovers the joy of cooking, making recipes her own with the addition of bittersweet chocolate spices, she realises that it possesses its own magic in this town full of secrets.

Yet Vianne will never forget her mother's warning: that there is danger in revealing the true desires of those around her - and she must flee these cobbled streets before it's too late...