Janey finds a five franc coin in her raincoat pocket and has no idea how it got there. Then days later down at the river while she is sitting on a rock watching the water, a man on the opposite bank calls out and asks her if he can paint her into his picture that he'll be entering into a competition in Paris. She finds this a little strange but agrees to sit there for a while longer. They then exchange information so he can let her know if he wins a prize.
She later tosses the coin into the river and makes a wish that he will win and also that she will someday visit Paris. She later finds a message scrached onto the rock she was sitting on and someone called Tomas is asking her to call him. She hesitates, but when she calls she discovers that the artist was killed in an accident and that he asked Tomas to bring Janey the picture called -Girl sitting by the Vaal River. Janey feels sad, even though theirs was only a chance meeting, but Tomas cheers her up by telling her about his life in Paris.
He also suggests that since she has nothing keeping her at the cottage or her home, she should come with him to Paris. But will Janey give up everything she knows to go to Paris with a man she has just met. Or will she find excuses and give up on her dream to visit Paris?