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1-Page Summary of All the Light We Cannot See
Overall Summary
The book All the Light We Cannot See is told in almost 200 short chapters that constantly cuts back and forth between two characters, Werner Pfennig and Marie-Laure LeBlanc. The story is un-chronological, but the timeline has been simplified for the purposes of this summary.
In the 1930s, a girl named Marie-Laure has a father who works at the Museum of Natural History in Paris. She begins to lose her sight and becomes blind by age 6. Her father teaches her how to read Braille and makes models of Paris for her so that she can learn how to navigate around it on her own. On each birthday, he gives his daughter a small wooden puzzle box as a gift, which she learns how to solve over time. One day, while touring the museum with her father, they discover an enormous diamond called “The Sea of Flames.” It is rumored that whoever owns this diamond will live forever but will also kill their loved ones when they die. The girl worries about this for years until one day when she asks him about it; he assures her that there is no such thing as curses or myths like these diamonds bring death upon people’s loved ones…
In 1934, a boy named Werner Pfennig is an orphan living in Germany. He’s afraid that he’ll be sent to work in the mines when he turns 15. However, his head of the orphanage, Frau Elena, teaches him French and encourages him to explore science. One day while experimenting with radios, Werner discovers a broadcast coming from miles away. The broadcasts consist of lectures on science which Werner enjoys listening to. His reputation as a great repairman grows and one day Herr Siedler recommends him for admission into the prestigious Nazi school called National Institute where he passes all his exams with flying colors after which Jutta becomes distant from him.
In 1940, the Germans invade Paris. Marie-Laure and her father decide to leave the city. Daniel LeBlanc has been tasked with hiding a diamond from the invaders. He travels to Saint-Malo, where he meets his uncle Etienne LeBlanc. Although Etienne is reclusive, he’s extremely likeable due to his knowledge of science and radio.
Werner starts at the National Institute, where he’s taught Nazi ideology. He quickly wins favor with Dr. Hauptmann, a professor who gives him challenging physics assignments. Werner works on designing radar systems with Hauptmann and also befriends another student named Frederick, who is rich but only there because his parents want him to go to school there.
Daniel builds a model of the city for Marie-Laure so that she can practice walking around. She also befriends Etienne’s cook and maid, Madame Manec. Eventually, it turns out that Henri LeBlanc—Marie-Laure’s grandfather—used to make radio broadcasts in secret from the attic room in his house about science (the same broadcasts that entertained Werner and Jutta as children).
One day, Daniel tells Marie-Laure that he has to leave. He promises her that he’ll be back, but after months pass by with no sign of him, she begins to worry about his safety in Nazi-occupied Saint Malo. She and the elderly Madame Manec work together to undermine the Nazis’ control over their city in small ways. Also, an old man named Harold Bazin gives Marie-Laure a key to a secret hiding place—a grotto at the edge of the sea near Saint Malo’s walls.
Madame Manec gets sick and dies. This inspires Etienne and Marie-Laure to fight the Germans together. Etienne starts a radio program, which includes information about the resistance, while Marie-Laure buys bread every day from the bakery that has secret messages inside it.
