Using his own multicultural upbringing (Indian, American, British) as a point of departure, Iyer sets out on a journey - both physical and psychological - towards a definition of home in this world gone mobile. He travels to Los Angeles International Airport, where town life (shops, services, sociability) is available without a town; to Hong Kong, where hotels are self-contained communities, to Toronto, made cosmopolitan by its emigrant population, to Atlanta, where the Olympic Village unintentionally commemorates the mass-produced universalism that shapes the games; to England, where the effects of empire-as-global-village are still being sorted out; and to Japan, where Iyer unexpectedly, and finally, finds a home for himself.
