Like the braiding of three strands of brioche, the lives of three women—Sophie Zabél Sullivan, Marcelle Pourrette Zabél, and Kate Barrington—become inextricably intertwined as each struggles to resolve issues from the past that have profoundly impacted their lives.

Sophie believed her childhood nightmares were safely behind her once she married and moved from France to the U.S.—until her mother, Marcelle, called her to her deathbed to honor one final request: “Find Pourrette!” 

Born on the last day of WWI, Marcelle, whose life epitomized the human cost of war, never knew her father, yet carried the Pourrette name, along with the shame of illegitimacy, as did her two oldest sons born during WWII. 

Enlisting the expertise of a friend and family therapist, Sophie encourages Kate to come to France to help find her grandfather and scour the stain of illegitimacy from her family’s name.

Kate, whose 30-year-old illegitimate daughter, given up for adoption during wartime, has reappeared in Kate’s life, struggles with her own shame and jumps at the opportunity to join Sophie in France. 

What emerges is a touching story about love, loss, and the importance of identity.

Carole Bumpus, a retired family therapist, writes a food/travel blog taken from excerpts of her interviews with French and Italian families, known as Savoring the Olde Ways. She has been published in both the U.S. and France for her articles on WWII veterans and has also been published in three short-story anthologies: Fault Zone: Words from the Edge, Fault Zone: Stepping up to the Edge and Fault Zone: Over the Edge.  A Cup of Redemption, her first historical novel, is loosely based on an elderly French woman’s final request to find a father she never knew and the two women who, in their search, find they, too, are struggling with their own travails of wartime legitimacy.