The main characters are a girl named Annette Burnier and a boy named Lucien Morel. They're best friends but they fight sometimes. On Christmas, Annette's mother gives birth to a boy, whom Annette names Dani, but the mother dies after he's born. Five years pass. But after a series of misunderstandings, Lucien is angry at Dani and threatens to throw his pet kitten, Klaus, into a ravine. But Klaus bites him, and Dani falls into the ravine after him. He's alive, but his leg is so severely injured he can't bend it, and has to use crutches for the rest of his life. Annette is furious, so much so that whenever Lucien tries to do something nice for them, she deliberately ruins everything he makes. Neither child can be happy, and they have to forgive each other sometime.
The story was adapted into a live-action film in 1980, and a 1983 anime from the World Masterpiece Theater titled Alps Story: My Annette.
This work contains examples of:
- An Aesop: The author wrote this book in order to inspire people to stop holding grudges and forgive people, even if it's near impossible for them to do so. If two people live their lives being angry at each other and hurting each other, they'll never be happy.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Because of what Lucien did and due to Annette telling everyone her side of the story, Lucien becomes a pariah. This is very much toned down in the anime.
- Annoying Younger Sibling:
- Dani, Annette's little brother, is a bit of a crybaby but for the most part he means well.
- Lucien is considered this by his older sister Marie, who finds his laziness to be problematic.
- Anti-Hero: Annette is at her core a good person, kind but assertive, hard-working, and devoted to her family. While she was always stubborn, this is taken to Darker and Edgier levels when she has to deal with a hard situation, like her beloved brother's accident, showing how a good person is also capable of being hateful and cruel to unreasonable levels. Being consumed by anger makes her unable to forgive a friend for his mistakes, to the point that readers/viewers stop sympathizing with her.
- Big Sister Instinct: Annette is a full-on Knight Templar Big Brother towards Dani and doesn't forgive easily whoever hurts her little brother.
- Book Dumb: Lucien isn't very good at academics.
- Butt-Monkey: Lucien. Sometimes his screw-ups are Played for Laughs, but on many occasions… not so much.
- Chekhov's Gun: Lucien makes a wooden sculpture of Noah's ark as an apology gift for Dani, but it was thrown by Annette and later found by Dani. Annette gives it to Monsieur Nicholas as a substitute for Lucien's wooden horse carving that was supposed to be presented at the competition.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Monsieur Peguin mentions he has two sons, one of whom is a doctor. When Lucien finds out about a doctor who can heal broken bones like Dani's injury, he goes to find him despite the danger. The doctor turns out to be Peguin's son.
- Children Are Innocent: Unlike his sister, Dani holds no grudge against Lucien for the accident. He's just as nice as Annette is resentful.
- Disappeared Dad: Lucien's father died when Lucien was around two years old, leaving his debts to his family.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Lucien's older sister Marie is kind, hardworking, does her chores, works hard at her job, and is generally nice when she wants to be, whereas Lucien starts out lazy, rude, cowardly, mean-spirited, balks at the idea of helping his family and doing chores, and frequently makes bad decisions. Marie often scolds him for his bad behavior, though this gets better after Lucien is wracked with guilt over what he did to Dani.
- Genki Girl: Annette is very cheerful and tomboyish, much to the chagrin of her mother and great aunt. She becomes much less cheerful after her brother's accident.
- Lazy Bum: Many characters accuses Lucien for being this trope.
- Missing Mom: Annette's mother dies after Dani is born due to having a weak constitution.
- Must Make Amends: Lucien, at any cost, even if his attempts are constantly put down by Annette's hatred towards him. Exaggerated when he goes to find a doctor that could heal Dani's leg in the middle of a snow storm and in the night".
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Annette hates Lucien so much she wants to make his life miserable, never to let him forget about what he did to Dani. It took several months and a petty revenge she eventually regretted to make her peace with him.
- Reformed, but Rejected: After the accident with Dani's leg, Annette holds an intense grudge against Lucien and sabotages all of his attempts to make up with her, so much so that she breaks all of the wood carvings he works hard on out of spite. At one point, it almost drives him to suicide had he not been talked out of it by Peguin.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Annette becomes more bitter, spiteful, and resentful towards Lucien as the story goes on. She gets better near the end.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: After Annette destroyed Lucien's wooden horse carving out of spite, she became a guilt-ridden wreck.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Lucien is angry one day, he threatens Dani by threatening to throw Klaus over a ravine. When the repercussions hit him hard, Annette is very quick to call him out on it and decide she hates him forever so he can never forget his crime.
