In a lightning-plagued mining town, a new bride turns to the alluring women of the brothel to heal her husband's chapped skin while strikes electrify the very air around them. A woman is sent to rescue her maiden aunts from imminent collapse into a the man-made volcano of a burning coal mine that threatens to swallow their house. A man's idea of real estate investment is a pre-emptive purchase of a gravesite, but he finds his plot is already occupied. Kristie Betts Letter's surreal and shimmering stories root readers in the subterrain of powerfully-developed characters who struggle to remain above ground.