From the magic of Greece, the wild Irish coastline and the excitement of Manhattan, characters meet and pass with unexpected consequences against the landscape of a world where cats roam, snakes slide and kestrels soar. Against the glittering blue backdrop of the Aegean, Nina's farmhouse in Greece brings more than she dreamed of, while on the island of Paros holidaymakers taste the joys of friendship, meet the pusakis, and savour the promise of a return visit. Further west, in an elegant house in Dublin, a new romance provides the menu for a special lunch as two friends exchange intimacies. Meanwhile, coastal improvements in Ireland's Co. Mayo cause excitement - and create unseen consequences - for the locals when they form a committee to plan their future prosperity. And even further, on the other side of the Atlantic, Angela relives her adventures in the Big Apple in the wake of Nine-Eleven, while Marsha discovers that an Easter break with her friends in New England has summoned nothing less than the snakes of Cotton Hollow. Miriam Gallagher's stories invite the reader into a wonderland infused with an almost primeval magic, where, playing out against backdrops both rural and urban, the complexities of modern relationships take on a shape which is, in turns, sharply comedic and gloriously tender.