Thanks to an airline strike, Professor Jocelyn Grammaticus faces a whole day sitting on the 8.20 through train from Aberdeen to Penzance. The most difficult ethical choice of her life awaits her at the end of her journey, and she seeks respite from her internal conflict in preparing a keynote conference speech due the following week. Unwittingly her fellow passengers give her intriguing real-life material to illustrate her arguments as they flit in and out of Coach C. But four hours before she's due to arrive at her destination a phonecall turns her world upside down. Will she have the moral courage to fulfill her promise? Will she be too late?