The kiss

On a warm summer evening, a red double-decker bus speeds down a London street. A few blocks away, a man and a woman climb into a limousine, revelling in a magical evening of dancing and champagne. The couple shares a first searching kiss, and time stands still...until, in a flash of metal and glass, their car is struck at full speed by the bus's tremendous weight. Isabelle Forrester is the exquisite wife of a Parisian banker who has long since shut her out of his heart. Isabelle has lived a life of isolation, pouring her passions into her two children. Isabelle allows herself one secret pleasure: a long-distance friendship by telephone with a Washington power broker who, like Isabelle, is trapped in a loveless marriage. To Bill Robinson, Isabelle is a godsend, a woman of extraordinary beauty and intellectual curiosity - a kindred spirit who touches him across the miles with her warmth and gentle empathy. Agreeing to meet for a few precious, innocent days in London, they find their friendship changing - until, with the sudden crash of steel against steel, they are thrust onto a new path fraught with pain and possibility. Now, inside the cool sterile wards of a London hospital, Isabelle and Bill cling to life, their bodies shattered almost beyond repair. Together they must find the strength not only to embrace life again but to face what they have left behind. A tangle of changing relationships and the tragedy of another loss conspire to separate them once again... and this time they could lose each other forever.