The characters in this collection of twenty-four short stories sift through the chaff of society from their own perspectives in the hope of finding a grain of sense to their lives. A barber lauds the art of listening and never allows his customer, a newcomer to the town, to say a word. A precocious Girl Scout coaxes a recluse out of his cocoon. An expectant father at the graveside of his beloved grandfather lays to rest one treasured life to prepare for another. A dictatorial and abusive husband dies at his wife's hand. A municipal brush truck driver rises to a final act of heroism. Two elderly men subconsciously explore loneliness in a casual and brief interaction. A lovable and profane old woman gets her final justice for those who have wronged her. A writer visits a psychologist and each rethinks how much fate has to do with what has brought them together. An opinionated old man is confronted in a court of law with the narrow path he walks between the eccentric and the insane. A journalist who once worked as a soda jerk in a small town drug store covers the story of why the drug store suddenly closed and finds himself returned there for good. A half-blind and homeless Viet Nam veteran comes to grips with a new kind of survival. An alcoholic and failed lawyer who would be a writer finds his course altered by a homeless ex-convict. A respected church member lays bare his respect while speaking from his coffin at his funeral. A creative writing professor and a young divorcee explore the line between observant writer and voyeur. A mentally handicapped bag boy in a supermarket bonds with a girl at work who is the same age and not the same age. A retired and widowed sociology professor struggles with guilt over mentally undressing women he has never met. An older brother revisits the hero worship his younger brother, a missing in action Viet Nam veteran, always bestowed on him. A homeless small town man ponders the people who abused him and the people who loved him a