I thought the idea of an American graduate student meeting a divorced countess aboard a ship bound for Europe in the 1960's held promise. Unfortunately, I found the characters boring and not particularly deep nor likable. I had a hard time completing the story because there was nothing in it to hold my interest. Scott basically gave up on graduate school in Geneva to follow Desiree around to all her glitzy parties. Her ex-husband gets jealous and tries to pay off Scott but being a gentleman in love, he doesn't take the offer. Neither of their families are happy about the pairing until of course she becomes pregnant and they all live happily ever after. I wish the characters and plot had been more well developed with some type of twist that wasn't expected. Unfortunately, this one just fell very flat for me.