A wedge is driven between a husband and a wife when a mysterious stranger arrives, claiming to have grown up in their home. After agreeing to marry a beautiful, headstrong Russian immigrant in exchange for a promotion, a bus boy turned waiter finds himself entangled in a web of organized crime. A strange confluence of circumstances at the end of an ordinary workday causes a man to go off the grid, living off what he can forage in the same affluent subusrb where he once lived comfortably with his family. These and other mesmerixing works of short fiction in this collection are resonant with the mystery, tension, beauty and insight that distinguish E.L.Doctorow´s novels.