mr brown lives in melbourne, australia in a retirement village. he receives an unsolicited email from a girl in eastern europe and discusses with his cronies whether or not he should reply. they say don't and he doesn't although they are all curious to know what would happen if he did reply.

Subsequently he receives an email from a girl in florence, italy looking for friendship and he replies. a friendship develops and becomes stronger. she wants to meet him but he has no intention of going to italy to meet her. however he suddenly comes into money and his wife wants to go to europe. she knows nothing of his continued relationship with the girl in florence. so they go off on their european trip.in a roundabout and improbable way they do meet but nothing is as expected. this story is about human nature, people's expectations,romance,drama, history and travel. partly set in the beautiful city of florence,