The Paris Apartment

Ben is Jess’s half-brother, and his disappearance from his Paris apartment provides the plot’s inciting incident. Ben’s goal in Paris was to make a name for himself as a journalist. He believed the story he had uncovered about the sex trafficking would be his ticket to fame. For this reason, his investment in uncovering the operation was not entirely altruistic.

Also in question are Ben’s intentions with the Meunier family, his interactions with whom occurred before the novel opens. Ben recognized his power as a charming outsider and wanted to prove that he could succeed in journalism while fitting in with an elite and wealthy family. Ben’s ambition creates questions about the sincerity of his relationships with Sophie and Mimi and his friendship with Nick: He could have been using all of them as sources of information, even though his feelings for them seemed genuine.

Ben and Jess have a strained relationship owing to their childhood separation and the subsequent socioeconomic differences in their upbringing, and her arrival in Paris annoys him. However, the two siblings’ bond is at the center of the novel. Ben’s St. Christopher pendant connects him to Jess. St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, and that symbolism connects the siblings, who have both been on journeys to find themselves. In the end, they are given the chance to confront and heal their pasts, restart their lives, and get to know one another.

Nick is a secondary character whose role is to connect Ben to the central conflict of the novel. Nick lets Ben back into his life because of his past attraction to Ben, but this past also informs Nick’s anxiety with Ben’s presence. Still, Nick is kind and extends his family’s resources when Ben moves to Paris. Nick believes the best in everybody and is constantly disappointed by the trust he puts in others. He is lonely because he is ashamed of himself and of his reliance on his father’s assets. He wants to make his own way in the world but is held back by the dependence his father has bred into him. Additionally, his father emasculates him, forcing Nick to be obedient and dutiful in order to win his approval. Nick is at times depicted as a possible antagonist throughout the novel, but ultimately, his intentions are good.

Sophie is a secondary character whose glamorous appearance disguises her troubled past. She first came to France to be a dancer and found herself enslaved by Jacques’s sex trafficking ring. She married Jacques to escape the poverty she would otherwise face, but in doing so, Sophie finds no liberation. She spends decades keeping up the façade of youth, happiness, and stability. Inwardly, Sophie is suspicious of all newcomers and has a difficult time nurturing genuine relationships with her stepchildren.

Sophie is depicted as coldly pragmatic throughout the novel, but her coldness comes from a lifetime of struggle and her depth of emotions for her adopted daughter, Mimi. Sophie and Mimi are connected through a shared but secret history of sex trafficking; Mimi could have been Sophie’s biological daughter in a subtly different situation. Sophie keeps Ben alive, proving that she is ultimately humane. Trapped by her husband’s tyranny, she is not free to be happy until he dies. The novel ends with Sophie looking at a very different life ahead of her.

Mimi is Sophie’s adopted daughter. Throughout the novel, Foley foreshadows that Mimi was directly involved in Ben’s disappearance. She is portrayed in pieces as irrational and extreme in her passions. This characterization is indirect and emerges through other characters’ treatment of Mimi. Her first-person narration reveals a young woman struggling with her sexuality, confidence, self-esteem, and role in the world. Unlike her friend Camille, Mimi is not free to date, socialize, and explore the world, as her father infantilizes her to control her.

Mimi’s obsessive infatuation with Ben suggests some emotional instability, but she simply doesn’t know how to pursue a crush in a healthy way. Though she murders Jacques, she finds redemption in defeating the primary antagonist who has terrorized everyone. Her emotional volatility and obsessive passions end up saving Ben and the rest of the family (as well as the women whom Jacques traffics) from Jacques’s overbearing and violent control.