The locations of these stories range from Birmingham in 1890's, and 1900's to America in the 1900's, to the UK from the 1960's to present day. The subject matter includes desertion within the family, a young woman who relies of body decoration to secure her identity, life in a Children's Home in the early 1900's, a travelling salesman and his dog, a widowed actress who has lost the sense of herself, an woman waiting for a father who will never turn up, a man disowned by his father, a boy learning the hard lessons with regard to sexual relationships, a man imprisoned by caution whose wife writes letters to her lover.


There is a sense of loss and restricted lives in a number of these stories. There is also, thank goodness, some humour.