A homeless woman grieves her son's death. A drug addict breaks through his withdrawal and mourns his losses. An adolescent girl realises that she must mother her mother. This collection of stories sheds light on the inner lives of the lonely, the alienated, and the dispossessed. Whether the narrators are adolescents or adults, theirs are stories of recognition and acknowledgment recognition of the unconscious self and acknowledgment of the repressed and haunting experience of trauma and loss.