Chapters 1-4 Summary

In Chapter 1, entitled "Where I Want to Be," 29-year-old Margot Harrington decides to fly from Chicago, where she lives to Italy. She plans to help repair old books that were damaged when the Arno River flooded. Against her father's wishes, she embarks on the journey, even though it also means that she might lose her job. Flashing back in time mentally, Margot remembers when she was almost in college, felt free, and had her life planned out. Life did not go as she had planned.

Slipping back and forth from past memories to current travels, Margot looks deeply into the world around her. She merges past experiences with the present. On a train going through France, she is mistaken for a French woman and inadvertently learns intimate details about two American women traveling in the same car.

She escapes to the...