When the eight of them - four men and four women - sign up for a literature class, they don't know that they've signed on for life. Meet the half-baked bunch - the real estate tycoon, the computer geek, the interpreter, the nurse, the stationer, the would-be writer, the teacher turned realtor, and the trek leader - an assortment of misfits who find one another at college. Brought together by a mentor and his sacred text, they form a communal bond that sustains them across the decades and around the globe. Can friendships endure over the long haul, despite human frailties, physical distance, and the passage of time? Don't ask this bunch; you'll never get a straight answer