We spend more time than we know trying to go back. We call it fantasising, we call it dreaming. . . but we're all crawling back, each in his or her own way.

A group of college friends find themselves marooned at a luxurious hotel on the Amalfi Coast in Italy.

While their boat is being repaired, they can't help but observe the daily routine of a fellow hotel guest - a mysterious, white-bearded stranger who sits on the veranda each night and smokes one cigarette, sometimes two.

When the group decides to invite the elegant traveller to lunch with them, they cannot begin to imagine the miraculous abilities, strange wisdom, and a life-changing story he is about to impart to one of the friends in particular.