It is 1907 and Baltimore, MD accounting clerk Emma D. Sudrow is restless in her current circumstances.  She yearns for some excitement in her life.  A single woman at 28 who lives with her mother and a close friend, Emma decides to participate in a new program at her church in which she is randomly given a name and address of a stranger in another land. 

To Emma's surprise, her first postcard sent to a young man in Cairo, Egypt finds its way to a different person, Emanuel Nicholas Georgiades, who takes her on a five-year journey throughout the great capitals and cities of Europe. 

The story, using the correspondence sent to Emma, brings this time in history to life through the visually stunning postcards and this fact-based tale of two people from different cultures who connect during a tumultuous time leading up to World War I.