Annabel is an unmarried, childless, thirty-five year old self-made billionaire based in Monaco. Robert is a renowned heart surgeon based in Ireland, aged forty.LiChan is Vietnamese and she is Annabel's personal assistant. Simon Beauvoir is Annabel's uncle and he runs her bank.Charlotte Rossi is Psychiatrist to both Annabel and LiChan.Barty is Robert's friend, convalescing in Italy after a heart operation, with his wife Mona.Yolanda is a twenty year old, working in a boat yard where Robert stops to earn some cash cleaning boats.Howard is a Texan multi-millionaire whom Annabel is considering to become the father of her intended childrenGriggs is Annabel's Head of Security and also her butler. He and the chauffeur Taylor, are both gay and in a relationship.Robert is tramping across the south of France, aiming to meet his friend and patient, Barty, in Italy. As part of the challenge he has set himself, he is working and hitching his way across to Italy, not having brought any cash or cards to finance his journey.Annabel is on her way back via Nice, to Monaco, after a gruelling business trip. She drives a top of the range red jaguar car.Annabel, on route from Nice airport, feeling exhausted and worried she might fall asleep at the wheel, parks in the car park at the start of the Promenade des Anglais, to take fresh air before driving on to Monaco.Robert is sleeping as a tramp under the promenade.Prostitutes are using the car park as a base in order to serve the airport trade.When Annabel is mugged she screams for help and is rescued by Robert. Robert thinks she is a prostitute and she thinks he is an alcoholic tramp. Subsequently, they sit together and as they converse, they warm to each other, but they don't expect their meeting to be more than a passing of two ships in the night. But later they make love in her Jaguar. They part, but don't realise they have fallen in love. The story shows how they get back together