When eighteen-year-old Odeline Milk is left orphaned by her mother, she takes her small inheritance and leaves her sleepy hometown behind in search of a lifestyle better suited to her artistic temperament. She moves to London to pursue her single-minded dream of becoming, of all things, a great mime in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin and Marcel Marceau.

But like many a solitary wanderer before her, Odeline finds that the London of her imagination isn t quite consistent with the reality. To save money she moves onto a longboat, auspiciously named Chaplin and Company, in London s...