In 1963, twenty-three-year-old Annie Ernaux discovered she was pregnant. Abortion was illegal in France at the time. Written forty years later, "The Event" recounts the months during which she hid her pregnancy from her parents, sought help from friends and doctors, and tried in vain to abort the baby with a knitting needle. Told with brutal simplicity, the story reveals a society of taboos and class prejudices, where the heroine's experience becomes an initiation. Drawing on diary entries and memory, meticulously constructing a dual perspective, Ernaux finds new meaning for the experience.