With this collection of beautifully written, interconnected stories, Nalini Jones establishes herself as a strong new voice in contemporary fiction. Home to her characters is a Catholic town in India, but the tales of their relationships, ambitions and concerns are altogether universal, capturing the expectations, joys and losses experienced by families everywhere. A mother pours her religious fervor out in letters to her son whom she has sent away to a seminary.

Years after his father's sudden death in a movie theatre, an older man begins to see his long-dead parent riding a bicycle around town. A brash, eccentric aunt speaks her mind and leaves home to tend her mother's cataract surgery, a daughter wonders how much she should reveal of her new life in the United States. American childhoods, Indian childhoods, love abroad, love at home - the worlds of these characters mirror and refract each other in a play of revelation and secrecy.