On a London bound train, a young man sees a silver ankle bracelet on an old lady's ankle. Fascinated, he persuades her to tell him the story behind it over a cup of tea. Of her love affair with an American in Amsterdam 30 years before. How, after three days, he gave her the bracelet. What happened next.

'She tells the young man in a London cafe a story that begins in an Amsterdam bar. How a young woman looked up when asked a simple question and the world reshaped. It was the eyes, the shock of them. Feline. Almond lozenges. The left one perfectly centered, the other offset. Eyes like a question, beyond the one asked. The breath she gathered for a polite refusal left her. She knew she'd have to take some back soon. What had he asked, this big man with the soft voice and the eyes that don't match? Something about a seat?'