In Italy there always seems to be some random holiday sneaking up on you when you least expect it. A festa. I arrived in the country on a festa, though I didn't feel like a holiday or remember how to celebrate. Barely twenty and brokenhearted, Gabriella arrives in the beautiful Tuscan city of Siena on a bitter winter day looking for solace. In the brochures, Siena was sunny and warm, but in reality, she feels cold and lonely. She can't communicate with the locals, or her American roommates, who are struggling with their own demons. The only company she finds is at night in the clubs talking to men who'd rather not be talking. Soon Gaetano, a potentially dangerous older man from the south of Italy, is waiting outside her classroom every day to show her "his" Italy. As she travels though the country with a new group of friends, she walks a fine line between freedom, and fear. A Semester Abroad is a passionate, sensuous novel about obsession, friendship and what makes a girl a woman.