Robert Kincaid is a photojournalist, currently working for National Geographic magazine. Kinkaid, a divorced man in his early-fifties, lives a nomadic life, traveling the world on assignments, unencumbered by attachments to people or places. A poetic and sensitive man, he dislikes modern civilization and how computers and robots are taking over people's lives. He is an attractive, though not handsome, man. The women he has dated saw something powerful in him, and often compared to an animal such as leopard or peregrine. He falls deeply in love with Francesca, who he considers a far more complicated woman than others realize. 