In her opening address, Ms Bokova stressed the importance to act where needs were most acute, pointing to Africa where over 300 of the 800 million people in the Sub-Saharan region live in a water-scarce environment.
The characters, including an engineer at a troubled computer-hardware firm, live in an Americanized work environment, yet certain emotions nearly lost to Americans, such as modesty and shame, still rule their lives.
She knew that she couldn't go back to the same environment that had led her to this pain, so she packed up and moved cross-country to live near her brother in California.