Saint-Émilion is the place where Grace and Jack’s early life together took shape: they fell in love there, and lived there until Grace became pregnant with Emma. Their departure, which Grace had insisted upon despite Jack’s wish to stay, later became a choice she reconsidered.

Setting and Shared Life

The narrative places Saint-Émilion in Bordeaux. During the couple’s years there, Grace painted while Jack worked in a vineyard. The town is established through these details of their daily lives rather than through a broader description of its landscape.

Leaving Saint-Émilion

Grace and Jack remained in Saint-Émilion until she became pregnant with Emma. Grace felt a strong desire to return to the United States to raise their children there, and insisted on going back even though Jack wanted to remain. The decision marks a difference between them at a formative point in their relationship: Grace chose the place where she wanted to raise a family, while Jack preferred to stay.

Recalled Significance

Saint-Émilion appears in Grace’s recollection of the years before the present crisis. Remembering the town also brings back the choice to leave it, and Grace wonders why she had been so certain about returning. The memory gives the location significance as the setting of both the couple’s shared beginnings and a decision Grace later questions; the evidence does not resolve what prompted her to reconsider it.