The setting of Agnès and Fabienne’s childhood is postwar reconstruction France. World War II recently ended, but the scars of war are still evident in Saint Rémy.

In 1940, the German military steadily took over countries throughout Europe. By June 1940, France was under Nazi control. While French troops continued to fight German militia, French civilians lived under new, oppressive rules and regulations enforced by Nazis. War is an expensive endeavor, in terms of both finances and loss of life. World War II officially ended in September 1945, and in the years that followed, France had to rebuild its infrastructure, economy, and communities.

The poverty of Saint Rémy likely existed before the war, as it is a village of modest farmers. However, the war exacerbated poverty for everyone, especially those who were already poor. Agnès’s brother Jean symbolizes the human loss of war. Jean was a French soldier, taken prisoner by German militia. He spent three years in a German labor camp, and when he returned to France, he experienced trauma. Jean’s death is slow and painful, a metaphor for the slow process of rebuilding after war.