Samantha's life is perfect - great clothes, great job, great boyfriend - until she finds her boss wants to shag her and her boyfriend is shagging someone else. But at least the clothes are still fabulous - and even more so if you're a dog. Leaving town after dispensing some well-deserved revenge, Sam carves out a new career for herself in canine haute couture. Sam thinks she's invincible, until she runs into a macho Italian with a penchant for garlic and an appendage named after a popular luncheon meat. By the time she's finished with him, he's only good for sandwiches. Set in Melbourne, Australia, in the late 70s, before email, mobile phones, FaceBook and Twitter, and before platform shoes and flares became retro, it was the time when The Pill became freely available to single women who took up the challenge of a changing world with gusto but not a lot of forethought. Samantha takes up this challenge with more gusto and a lot less forethought than most. Now if only she could just sort out her love life. A mix of comedy, romance, sex and violence, This Girl's Abroad also covers the correct technique for defrosting a dead pug.