The four stories in this collection explore the vagaries of intimate human relationships. The subjects-a freshly retired couple with a no-longer-young daughter whose behavior still vexes them, two stoic men working adjacent farms in the American Midwest, a pair on the cusp of middle age facing a terminal illness, and a man and woman leaving youthful wandering behind for the grim reality of workaday existence-struggle to find meaning and fulfillment in a world governed by measurement and monetization.