Motivated to expatriate by guilt after helping to design guidance systems for the U.S. Military, Doran Seeger has lived the past decade in Europe. Wandering from country to country, he has encountered new societies and new ideas, though he still struggles to appease his conscience. Living in Prague and working as an underground art dealer, a chance encounter with the sister of his former lover persuades him to return to Greece, where a society that embraces real civility tenderly draws the habitual itinerant out of reticence and cynicism. With his longtime Greek friend Modestos Thromos by this side, Doran plants a winter garden; and as he patiently tills the Grecian soil, he reclaims his integrity, his sense of joy, and his humanity.