It takes two

Francesca Rivabuona is fifty, worn down by the sameness of her days, and living in a marriage that has gone flat. Her children are grown and gone, and her calendar is filled with Upper East Side dinners and charity lunches. When a glossy travel magazine offers her a chance to write about Buenos Aires, she accepts eagerly, hoping for a change of scenery.

In Buenos Aires she falls under the city's restless energy. A circle of tango dancers becomes her guide, showing her the places worth seeing and the hidden corners locals love. Among them she rediscovers a sense of passion she believed had gone for good.

As Francesca learns the tango's close, sensual movements, she starts to open up, on the dance floor, in the bedroom, and in her everyday life. A passionate affair with Argentina's most celebrated plastic surgeon follows, and she comes to understand that the city has changed her for good. The novel follows a middle-aged woman who refuses to accept the disappointments of her life, set against the pull of tango and the heat of Argentina.