What is love? Manuel Chou wanted to know.Manuel the orphan was a child no one seemed to want. His own mother left him at the firehouse door, unnamed. Possessing a natural gift for numbers, Manuel was likewise an avid student of all manner of learning. Perhaps because he had not been the recipient of any great quantity of it, his favorite subject was the tenure of love.Orphan Chou never knew love growing up. So he had to grow it all on his own. He pursued with great vigor all the manifestations of love. Not only did he wish to understand its intricacy, his dedication was to become proficient in every category of this gentle quality. Friendship, philanthropy, brotherhood, humanity, and compassion: he pursued each with equal vigor.Yet of one variety, he was unsure he would ever experience. Manuel Chou had never been in love. The specific quality occasioned by the word romantic; it seemed something he might never be the owner of.Then along came Michele. And Manuel was lost in that glorious and confusing world of being both on the earth but also somewhere else. He had no idea what kind of ride he was in for.