With U.S. independence secured, at the urging of his father twenty-one year old Robert Rutherford sails for Europe in 1787 to seek new business for the family firm. Surprised by his warm receptions from pre-war associates of his father in France and in England, he is drawn into life in both countries.

What the New Yorker had thought would be a period of travel evolves into residence. His twenties begin to disappear and a far away America is kept alive for him mostly through letters from home and encounters with other Americans in Europe. The unexpected onset of revolution in...