A cast of characters struggling with forces that perplex and threaten to consume them populate this collection of wildly bizarre short stories. From a smuggling operation to bring oversized toilets banned by the EPA into the United States to a depressed taxi driver lost on Vermont's back roads, and from Stalin's dentist to a child with Down's syndrome exploring the wonders of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, these stories come upon people in the midst of strange upheavals. Reacting with humor, anger, and, often enough, grace, Durcan's blissfully deluded medical research subjects, riot cops, and activists are at once dutiful and vengeful. This energetic collage of styles and subject matter is a sometimes scenic, sometimes exhilarating ride through all walks of life.