When Samuel, a lonely linguistics lecturer, wakes up on New Year's Day, he doesn't expect much from the coming year. When a stray, brindle-furred cat slips into his Barcelona apartment, it becomes the catalyst that leads Samuel from the comforts of his favorite books, foreign films, and classical music to places he's never been and to people he might never have met. Even better, he is led back to the mysterious Gabriela, whom he thought he'd lost long before, and discovers sometimes love is hiding in the smallest characters.