Trains, romance, a mysterious past. Michael Poole (Sir John Hurt) is an ex-conman, whose cons have finally caught up with him. Unaware of his past, Alice (Brenda Blethyn) joins him in a dramatic escape on the Orient Express.

A man released from jail, where he had served time for doctoring the books of a gangster, has to go into hiding from the gangster's men. He moves into a Dublin boarding house run by a woman and her timid daughter. The timid woman immediately takes a shine to the new boarder and to his train sets, which they each use as an escape from reality. However, her mother doesn't like their relationship and they both are chased by the gangsters.—John Sacksteder <[email protected]>