It is not often you receive a letter from your dead.

When Vianne Rocher receives a letter from outside of the grave, she’s no choice but to follow the blowing wind that blows her back again to Lansquenet, the village in south-west France where, eight years ago, she opened up a chocolate shop.

But Vianne is totally unprepared for what she finds there. Women veiled in dark, the fragrance of spices and peppermint tea, and there, on the lender of the river Tannes, facing the square little tower of the church of Saint-Jerôme just like a piece on a chessboard – slim, bone-white and crowned with a sterling silver crescent moon – a minaret.

Neither is it only the incomers from North Africa which have brought big adjustments to the community. Dad Reynaud, Vianne’s erstwhile adversary, is now disgraced and under danger. Can it be that Vianne is the only one who are able to save him?