Christopher Burton, Britain"s foremost foreign correspondent, has returned with his Italian wife to London for an extended stay. One morning, while at the reception desk of his Knightsbridge hotel, he receives a phone call announcing that his teenage son has committed suicide in Italy. Why, upon hearing the news, does he immediately conclude that his marriage of 30 years is over? And why is grief so slow in coming? Analyzing the three decades of his love-hate relationship, Burton finds his life a web of contradictions, questions, and confusions. And yet, clearly, it has also been his destiny.