Set in the downtown Toronto of the 1980s, these two stories are told with an intricacy which powerfully evokes both sense and dream. An anorexic who embraces poverty after a childhood of privilege attends a small dinner party where she confronts secrets and lies of the past and present. Dominant in his relationships with an Ojibwe wife and a ballet dancer, a taxidermist becomes obsessed with an elephant calf then fails in his one attempt at mercy. "Raine" and "The Taxidermist" are deeply concerned with the fragility of the body and how it can betray itself as well as be destroyed by others. Yet the abundance and momentum of the world around it continually urge survival.