We see Denise's expectations being dashed when she was faced with the realization over and over that bigger places are not better nor as glamorous as they seem. This is a true life story of a girl from the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla who longed to experience firsthand how people live in other cultures. Denise craved the experience because it seems more glamorous than the life she knew. We follow her as she travels to other islands in the Caribbean, then the USA, and finally in England. She analyses the people and places she encounters, and we grow with her as she makes new discoveries and realizations. In the USA, while working in a restaurant she struggles to understand how customers and staff were able to think up all sorts of schemes; from not paying their bill to scamming a buck. It was then, for the first time she understood the meaning of 'ignorance is bliss'. And in England, watch how she overcomes the day-to-day struggles and dilemmas of life in London. In the end, her story comes full circle when she finally realizes that the life she craved to experience with all its glamor isn't so glamorous after all. Humor, wonder and wisdom, Leaving Island Life is an interesting study of cultural differences.