With this collection of beautifully written, interconnected stories, Nalini Jones establishes herself as a new strong voice in contemporary fiction. Home to her characters is a Catholic neighbourhood 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 fervour 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 old man begins to see his long-dead parent riding a bicycle around town. Abrash, eccentric aunt speaks her mind and leaves home without a trace, but not without haunting her godson. Returning home to tend to her mother's cataract surgery, a daughter wonders how much she should reveal of her new life in the Inited 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.