In these short stories it's the ordinary things that turn out to be most extraordinary. Two sisters quarrel over an inheritance, a child awake in the night explores her home, a housekeeper caring for an elderly man uncovers secrets from his past. The stories focus in on crucial moments of transition. Small acts have large consequences and some of them reverberate across decades. The real things that happen to people, the accidents that befall them, are every bit as mysterious as their longings and their dreams.