Here's Hoffman's idea: Travel around the world using the most dangerous forms of transportation. Sound like fun? And he does it. He rides on dangerous places, goes on dangerous trains, travels on dangerous ferries, and takes dangerous buses. All the while, he ruminates on why he is not content to stay home with his wife and children. He survives. Finally, it is time to go home. "It was time to go home....Time was only worthwhile when your eyes were fresh, when it surprised you and amazed you and made you think about yourself in a new way. You couldn't travel forever....In everyone, I suspect, lay a tension between the need for otherness and home. We all want security, we all want adventure, the familiar and the new always jockeying for control."
