Stephen Ambrose is a missile programmer in love with his psychiatrist.  Little by little he finally realizes nothing can happen with her, and he learns the tango.  Tango leads to learning Spanish, and ultimately to Buenos Aires.  On the last night of a trip to BA he meets the dance partner of his dreams, but she lives in Amsterdam.  Naturally, that leads to a trip to Holland, but imagine his shock when he learns that his dream partner from Buenos Aires not only lives in Amsterdam, but works in the red light district.

During the course of Stephen's path to Amsterdam, he chums around with a Korean auto parts distributor, an intelligence agent who would like his missile secrets, and moonlights writing science fiction about aliens with expanding brains based on something he learned from nature, exploring in the process the notion of intelligence.