The foundation of this book is based on a recording of a speech by Annie Ernaux in Yvetot, the small town of her childhood in rural Normandy. The author visited there at the invitation of the municipality in 2012, several decades after Yvetot existed for her only in memory and writing.

The town, along with its residents and customs, is a key character in Ernaux's books. It sits at the intersection of the personal and the social: the trials of growing up here are inseparable from the awareness of class inequality, and writing and literature tread a fine line between the vernacular language of the working class and the refined "language of the enemy."

The book includes letters by Annie Ernaux, diary excerpts, photographs, as well as an interview with the researcher of her work, Marguerite Cornier.