Although two love stories are presented, the primary focus here is the struggle of characters with the confines of societal distinctions. The challenges of this struggle are mirrored in the challenges of running, the dash and the marathon, where rules must be followed but personal drive determines success. The primary love story is between a rich man, so focused upon being a star athlete that he has neglected his emotional life, and a much less affluent woman so obsessed with the demands of accurate translation of subtitles for foreign movies that she too has neglected or even rejected personal emotional attachment. The second love story is between a rich woman executive caught up in the privilege and protocol of upper class life, and an artist living hand-to-mouth but completely unimpressed with class distinctions. Their stories are that of overcoming the barriers their walks of life have raised and letting their personalities express themselves and open up to their mutual affections. The struggle of individual expression to overcome the restrictions of society extend to other characters as well, and it is the strength of this series that it can combine the issues of emotional love stories with societal strictures, such as subjugation of women and rejection of untraditional sexual orientation, and manages also to illustrate how society and individual clash.
