Barbara, a Ph.D. student in philosophy, leads an insouciant and bohemian life with her partner Nicolas until they decide to have a child. Her pregnancy will transform her emotional, sexual and familial life to an unexpected degree.

She discovers the physical changes of a body she doesn’t recognize anymore, the nausea, and then the nightmare of labor. Barbara thinks that she’s gotten through the worst after the delivery, but she gradually realizes that the hardest is to come with lack of sleep, depression, guilt, the intrusion of her mother-in-law in any decision regarding the baby, and the erosion of her relationship with her partner.

In Un heureux événement fiction is blended with a subversive analysis of motherhood in our society, while the author breaks the silence on a sacrosanct subject: motherhood. The author reveals with lucidity and humor the details that compose the daily life of a young mother.