Parker Griffon, 31, is a physicist launching a software startup in Munich, believes that love is a myth created for fools. 

He meets Vivian Falkenberg, 25, a linguist from the German colony in Argentina, determined not to repeat the pattern of women in her family who become dependent on men only to be betrayed. 

Their relationship begins as teacher and student, transitions to Vivian mentoring Parker through the complexities of European business, and eventually becomes romantic. Through it all, they both agree: careers first, no commitment.

When Parker must move back to the US, Vivian won’t follow, and their relationship reaches a breaking point. It’s only when a friend whose wife died in her 20s convinces them to find a third way that they put their careers on hold to backpack from Cairo to Cape Town on $20 a day.

In Malawi, exhausted by the travel and unsure of their future as a couple, Vivian sends Parker back to Europe. Alone, living out of a tent and with only $60, she contracts malaria, and faces the cost of her independence.