In the 1890s, an eleven-year-old French boy is abruptly sent away from his home in the city to live with a great-aunt on her farm and vineyard near Bordeaux. Jean Gilles (pronounced "jon jeel") is told by his mother only that that his father is unwell. Feeling lonely, Gilles finds comfort in the beauty of the countryside. He is soon enrolled in a boys' boarding school. Sensitive and introspective, he struggles to make friends and adjust to the daunting school culture. This is a recent English translation of a prize-winning French novel first published in 1912, and reissued many times since.