 Mathilde, a snobbish and lonely Parisian teenager has a hard time getting used to Elsie, the lively African-American au pair girl her mother hired. Unexpectedly, a close friendship blossoms with this "Amerloque" (a pejorative word for a United States national) and Mathilde opens up to a new world of friends. A quarrel between the mother and Elsie brings the latter out of the picture, and Mathilde s world falls down again... unless she can help Elsie solve her other really major family problem.