"He climbed the metal lookout tower ladder to where once he was aloft the air seemed clearer, or cleaner, he couldn't decide which, regarding the farmhouses as having established themselves in pinpoint precision amidst the chaos of the field, self-contained identities with distinct functions of their own from which their gravel paths snaked away, eventually to connect to other farmhouses the same and yet entirely different, like fingers entwined or arterial systems or the vagaries of butterflies, and his pulse quickened as he almost understood something in that..." The arrival of a mysterious package heralds a quest of redemption for Jim Houghton, whose journey out of cynicism towards insight and sympathy is revealed by a remarkable variety of narrative voices. On his way, he encounters others like him-disillusioned, self-wounded-and learns that the past is very much the present but not necessarily the future. After all, everyone deserves a second chance. But why is he drawn to these characters' lives at the times they were poised on the cusp of momentous decisions? Is the answer somehow connected to the seemingly nondescript gift he unearths in the dusty bookstore workroom?