Kaylie Jones's autobiographical novel, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, is based on her life with her father, author James Jones (From Here To Eternity). James Ivory was drawn both to the saga of expatriate family life in Paris and to the character of Francis, a dramatic young boy. Told from the vantage point of the daughter, Channe, the film is broken into three chapters, each set in a different time and centered on an important person in Channe's life-her adopted brother Billy, her school friend Francis, and her father. “Rarely has family life been presented with such refined precision” (TIFF).