Does "I love you" even mean the same thing as "je t'aime"? In her thirties, Lauren Collins left North Carolina for London and fell for a Frenchman named Olivier; he speaks English, but she could only wonder what she doesn't understand about him, having never spoken to him in his native tongue. When the couple marry and relocate to Francophone Geneva, Collins decides to answer her questions for herself by learning French. In this witty and surprising memoir about the lengths we go to for love, Collins endures excruciating role-playing games with her classmates at a Swiss language school and accidently telling her mother-in-law that she's given birth to a coffee machine. In learning French, Collins encounters the frustrations, embarrassments, and, finally, joys of learning—and living in—French.