What are the most significant events in Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog?

The first most significant event in The Elegance
of a Hedgehog (representing Rene's hidden elegance) is when Mr. Ozu moves
into the apartment building of which Rene is the concierge. Mr. Ozu is a catalyst for
the further development of the story. He sees through both Rene and Paloma and realizes
they are more than they let themselves appear to be. He encourages both to expand the
revelations of their true identities, for example, he gives Rene Anna
Karenina and he prompts Paloma to reveal her fluency in Japanese. After his
influence, Rene and Paloma discover each other and become friends and discover they are
"kindred" souls of one another.

Another significant event
is when Mr. Ozu invites Rene to dinner. Rene backs down, and Paloma shares with him the
story Rene relayed about her sister's unfortunate experience. Mr. Ozu convinces Rene to
join him at his birthday dinner and insists that "You are not your sister, we can be
friends. We can be anything we want to be." The next most significant event is the last.
Rene goes out the next morning in high spirits while thinking of Mr. Ozu's words to buy
brass cleaner. Through an unfortunate encounter with Gégène, she is struck by a dry
cleaner's van (ironically, once her life has finally been cleaned and pressed and is
ready to be polished up) and dies. In grief, Mr. Ozu and Paloma go to Rene's loge and
lament the loss of Paloma's "kindred soul":

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How can you have a profound thought when your
kindred soul is lying in a hospital
refrigerator?

Finally,
Paloma's life is vitalized. She decides that she will not destroy the building and
herself when she is thirteen. She decides instead that she will continue "searching for
those moments of always within never."