What are boys and men thinking? That's what the wry, observant,heartbroken and hilarious girls and woman in these stories want to know. What are they thinking when they warn women against adventure, gulp ale in moonlit truck wrecks, steal their fingers down their nurses' thighs, tell their little girls fairy tales? Why are insane boys the most exquisite, and where have the musical geniuses flown without our love? What is Jerome Hepditch doing in a loincloth, and how will his wives acquire escape vehicles?

Canadian Kathleen Winter's tales engage in an almost hyper-real attempt to capture the texture of small-town East Coast life, and what binds them together is a strong voice. Many of these stories are very short and contain little in the way of plot, dramatic tension or narrative art.