The Nightingale: Chapter 21 Summary & Analysis

Summer arrives, and with it comes incredibly hot temperatures. The heat makes Sophie sick, and she runs a high fever. Vianne is upset that she doesn’t have medicine to help Sophie and doesn’t know where to get any. Sophie’s cries draw Beck’s attention. He comes into Sophie’s room and gives Vianne a bottle of antibiotics to help treat Sophie’s illness. Vianne knows that the antibiotics will cost her something in the future but feels that she has to accept Beck’s offer.

Meanwhile, Isabelle continues her resistance efforts. After yet another successful trip across the Pyrenees, she arrives at the Spanish consulate. Unfortunately, this time one of the airmen did not make it across the border without being arrested because he failed to follow Isabelle’s orders. Apparently, he did not respect her enough because she is a woman. Nonetheless, Isabelle’s contact in Spain is impressed. Over the past several months, Isabelle has escorted 87 men across the border. Isabelle is warned that she is doing too much and that the Nazis are looking for her. Of course, they do not know Isabelle’s real name; they only know her as the Nightingale. Although Isabelle knows that Ian is right, she rejects his warning and plans to continue her missions.

Despite the sense of accomplishment that she feels every time she completes a mission, Isabelle is not completely happy. She misses Vianne and Sophie and has regrets about how she treated Vianne when staying in her home. Unfortunately, Isabelle cannot visit Vianne and Sophie because doing so would put them both in harm’s way.

When Isabelle returns to Paris, Anouk approaches her and tells her about a new job. Apparently, the Germans are looking for French women to help them with a secret clerical job. By pulling some strings, Levy managed to get Isabelle a position. He wants her to go and figure out what the Germans are working on. That night, Isabelle heads to German headquarters to perform her new job. On the way there, a German solider stops her. However, he lets her go once she explains where she is headed.

When Isabelle arrives at the German headquarters, she is handed a box of cards, each of which contains a name. Her job is to separate the names into two piles: one pile for foreign-born Jewish people and one pile for Jewish people born in France. Shocked, Isabelle begins sorting the names. However, before long, she comes across a card with Levy’s name on it. The sight startles her, and she accidently spills her box of cards. As she picks up her spilled cards, she slyly pockets Levy’s card so that the Germans won’t have it.

After hiding Levy’s card, Isabelle leaves without completing her job. She heads straight for Julien Rossignol’s apartment, where the two of them discuss the purpose of the cards. Later that night, someone slides a pamphlet under their door. The pamphlet them that the Germans are planning to send all of the Jewish people not born in France to labor camps. This news frightens Isabelle and Julien, and they decide that they need to help their Jewish neighbors hide. Isabelle does her best to help but can only do so much. She doesn’t want to draw too much attention to herself and out herself as the Nightingale.