The Toy and Other Stories presents 25 short and longer "takes" on reality - some true, some partly true, others wholly fictional - which describe past and present events, and possible futures that may be unwinding in new or recurring directions. Several stories investigate the "underside" of history, examining alternative explanations for accepted fact, while others explore more private worlds as characters confront uncharted and mysterious situations that disobey our normal expectations of the real. Perhaps things are not as we were told and led to believe, and our lives are far stranger and improbable than we'd like to imagine.