by Charlotte Vale-Allen

Coming right at the end of a major assignment, photojournalist Joanna James isn't as thrilled as one might expect when she receives another assignment--to ride the Orient-Express to Venice. Putting of a much-needed rest, she flies to London where she will, after a very brief stay, board the famed, newly-restored train.

While in London, at a low ebb psychologically, she embarks on two affairs simultaneously, with two radically different men: Henry, her wryly witty British agent, and Tyler, an actor/producer/director she interviewed some years earlier.

It feels to Joanna as if she's escaping chaos when she finally departs on the train, but she finds it difficult to regain her usual, self-protective emotional detachment. And as she train makes it way through Europe, she strikes up warm and surprisingly intimate friendships with several of the other passengers.

These friendships hold throughout Joanna's stay in Venice, growing in seeming proportion to a new and altered sense of herself. This assignment offers Joanna a view into the hearts of her new friends but, more importantly, a clear view into her own.