In this collection of short fiction, one of the heralded masters of the form examines the lives of men and women in the 1930s and '40s South—a region and a time he knew well. Living in a well-ordered world that's beginning to lose its equilibrium, Taylor's fascinating characters struggle to come to terms with the constricting circumstances into which they were born. Delicately interweaving the joys and pains of these families, Peter Taylor goes beyond regionalism to the simple truths recognizable to people everywhere.