Stories within stories, streams of consciousness and flights of imaginative fancy... These eight pieces, some related and some not, weave their way through some of the trials of human existence. They encourage us to consider the way we choose to live and interact with technology and how we judge others in the modern world, and tell us of the details of lifestyles gone by, highlighting the differences between the life of a young person then and now: culturally, financially and socially. Meet a writer in a bar impressing a lady with his imagination, a fair-minded shopping mall manager, a bird-man, some disembodied voices, European turn-of-the century immigrants and many other characters. Read about an escape on a train, dreams which might not be dreams and the strange things that make different people laugh, interspersed with philosophy and musings on the world.