An Amtrak train is bound from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest. Nick meets Colleen in the dining car when the porter seats them at the same table. He is from Chicago and she is from Ireland. They are immediately attracted to each other and continue their conversation for many hours before arriving at her destination in Portland, Oregon. Nick continues on to Seattle and Vancouver. Later, Colleen returns to Ireland. They begin corresponding and agree to see each other again, but every time they try to do so, something goes terribly wrong. The obstacles they experience are strange and even border on the bizarre. Nick becomes obsessed with seeing Colleen and being with her, but he begins to believe that destiny has a different plan for them. He keeps trying to connect but she is mysteriously out of reach. Somehow, somewhere, he had to find her. From Seattle to Florence and from Dublin to Munich the story evolves into events of deception, betrayal, murder and the Irish Republican Army.