We never talk to strangers on the train. That's the rule. But what if we broke it?

Every morning at 8:05, Iona Iverson takes the train to go to work. Every day, she sees the same people and makes assumptions about them - she even gives them nicknames. But they never speak. Obviously.

Then, one morning, the Smart-but-Sexist Surbiton chokes on a grape in front of Iona's eyes and starts to suffocate. When another passenger intervenes and saves his life, a chain reaction is triggered. A diverse group of people, who only have in common that they take the same train, learn that the assumptions we make about others don't match reality. But when Iona's life starts to go downhill, will these new friends come to her rescue?

"My dad grabbed me by the shoulders and turned red. 'Never wear women's clothes again, do you hear me? Do you hear me, Gigi?' And he said, 'The next time I hear you say in front of your uncles that when you grow up you want to be Mary Poppins, I swear to you that... I swear to you that...'"

Gigi gives the image of a child without any particular problems. He looks happy, he is diligent and a wise student in the fourth grade and he is very close friends with a classmate from Pakistan, Nazia. Gigi's mom works in Dubai and is completely absent, his dad has recently become unemployed, and the little boy - who does not talk about his mother - has Mary Poppins as his only role model. His teacher begins to sense that something is not going so well. She believes that his dependence on the -idealized in the little boy's imagination- Mary Poppins is only the visible tip of an iceberg, and seeks the help of the school psychologist. In turn, the psychologist asks Gigi to paint her some pictures from his daily life, and thus the pieces of a very complex puzzle unfold before her..."