Linked by themes of desire and adultery, the nine diamond-hard stories that comprise this collection tell of the disappointments and reconciliations of women whose lives have fallen out from under them.

A woman's husband is carrying on with her best friend. A dentist's assistant is pleading with her much older boss to leave his wife and move in with her. A mother is abandoned late in life by her daughter and then by her husband. From these seemingly devastating situations, each must rise, gather her strewn possessions, and move forth without bitterness or despair.

Salvation comes through small acts of defiance - a shattered greenhouse, a mailbox fouled by raw liver, sex with a cousin's husband - or through the more lasting balm of slow self-recovery.