What do we know about the condition with which everything begins? A few moments after the birth of her first child, Clémentine Goldszal realizes: she knows nothing about what is to come. This baby, her newborn, is like a book written in a language she cannot read or even decipher. And so she begins to learn: to teach herself a language she does not know. For months, she meticulously observes premature infants in a neonatal unit, where high-tech medicine meets the fates of individual families. To understand the mysterious nature of the newborn, she consults experts, accompanies families, delves into cultural history, and confronts the inevitable existential and ethical questions.