Polly Fenton loves her job teaching English in London, and she's mad about Max Fyfield. But she's leaving both behind to embark on a year-long teacher's exchange to Vermont. Swapping Marmite for Hershey bars and cornflakes for Cheerios is one thing. Trading lives with her American counterpart Jen is quite another. But the minute Polly's feet touch down Stateside, she's swept off them altogether. She's dazzled by the brave new world; her letters become shorter, then less frequent. When she meets Chip Jonson, school athletic trainer, home thoughts from abroad cease altogether. Meanwhile in London, her boyfriend, his brother, her best friend and her replacement are forming quite the cosy foursome. If, by the end of the first term, a certain amount of bed-hopping seems inevitable, who is it to be? Spanning three terms and two countries, this is a sparky and sassy story of New England and Old England, fidelity and flirtation, receiving one's comeuppance - and making amends.