Helen Gibbs, a British journalist on assignment on the west coast of Mexico, meets Christopher Delavaux, an intriguing half-French, half-American lawyer-turned-financier who has come alone to surf. Living lives that never stop moving, Helen and Christopher must decide how much they exist for themselves and how much they exist for each other. In an effort to build his firm, Christopher leads a life full of speed and ambition with little time for Helen and even less when he suspects his business partner of illegal activity. Meanwhile, Helen searches far and wide for reporting work that will “take a bite out of her soul” --- refugees in Calais, a mountain climber in Chamonix, an orphaned circus performer in Cuba.

Eliza Poinsett, an art historian in London with a charming Etonian boyfriend who adores her, is unnerved when she runs into Henry, her childhood love, at a wedding in the English countryside. Her carefully guarded equilibrium is shattered when she meets Henry again in Charleston, where she has come for her stepsister’s debut. Eliza has to decide if she is willing to risk everything for which she has worked so hard to be with the only man she has ever truly loved.