Sixteen tales which range from Ireland to the southern United States. In "Antarctica", a married woman travels out of town to see what it's like to sleep with a man other than her husband. In "Love in the tall grass", on the last day of the twentieth century Cordelia keeps a date with her lover that has been nine years in the waiting. "Stay close to the water's edge" tells of a young Harvard student who is pitilessly humiliated by his homophobic stepfather on his birthday.