Theodore “Theo” Decker is only 13 years old when her mother is killed in an explosion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This tragedy will change his life: going from distress to guilt, he rebuilds little by little and even discovers love. Throughout his journey to adulthood, he keeps preciously a relic of this fatal day that allows him not to lose hope: a painting of a tiny bird chained to his perch. The goldfinch.