In the year of Belgium's Expo 1958, when an American couple falls into a happenstance friendship with a Belgian countess living in their Brussels neighborhood of Etterbeek, contrasting love stories play out against a backdrop of international intrigue. Gratifying from the outset, their association with her turns insidiously into a harrowing adventure, casting a shadow over their year's intended scientific and artistic pursuits, and their marriage itself. Behind these troubles lurks the story of the Countess's life, told by her at first reluctantly and then to near completion: In an astonishing span of over half a century and two world wars, her life in luxurious and privileged society became one of desperate circumstances and despicable entrapments. After WWII and consequentially upon King George VI's death the Countess's past unexpectedly returns, and with it the repercussions of a poignant adolescent love affair. Thus, unbeknownst to the Americans, they arrive just as her predicaments have reached a perilous point.