Some people love it here. Others don’t. Lucy Fox — graduate student and addicted runner — after a long bout of malevolence towards this country, has slowly managed to eke out tenuous peace terms with Italy, and has even found her own niche where she can quietly get through her twenties with just a few good friends and a lot of American coffee. This tender equilibrium will be pushed to the limits, though, as an uptight new girl takes up residence across the hall, and a pushy jogger drops dead on the front doorstep of the aristocratic nursing home where Lucy resides in central Rome. The exploits that follow will drive Lucy on an erratic expedition deep into the many beautiful yet motley layers of the ancient city — from crumbling universities to modern prisons and from trendy convents to back alley pubs — and dredge up all the inner turmoil she thought she’d left behind in the States.