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.