The stories in this collection are filled with brutally honest characters who reveal their deepest desires as they endearingly win over readers, then break their hearts. A hospice worker falls for his dying, married patient and is forced to question what he will and won't do for love; a 1960's debutante defies society's conventions and takes drastic measures in order to maintain her social status; an elderly mother gets lost in the Lord's Prayer as she shares her life's joys, disappointments and years of abuse; a young father changes the course of his family on the same day America's fate is irrevocably altered; Mai Ly is taken from her family and forced into an unfamiliar and callous world where the only solace she can find is in Cuoi, a man she believes watches over her from the moon; a teenager finds herself the spectator of another girl's tragic life and is forced to accept the physical and emotional cruelty that exists in the world. These characters' stories, and the others that fill this collection, will stay with the reader as a reminder that everyone has a private place filled with the longing to be seen, accepted, and understood.