Ann leaves New York alone in 1964 with $400 and a one-way ticket to Lisbon. She will not return for ten years, during which she lives deeply in Spain, Italy, Israel, and Greece. Like Isabel Archer, the protagonist of Henry James's eponymous novel, she is dissatisfied with her options in America and willing to take the risk of living where she is a stranger in order create a more satisfying life. She is fascinated by everything she finds in Europe but brings with her a trusting American innocence that is easily taken advantage of. The new self that Ann crafts is not what she had thought she'd been seeking, but that is the point. The fictitious Isabel lived in the late 1800s; the real Ann lives among us today, but how much has really changed?
