A professor contemplates the ruins of his life while delivering a passionate final lecture; a city girl suffers an unaccountably cruel twist of fate in a stranger's apartment; a rising executive flies blindly toward his past; and, darkly fleeting, a young boy haunts the lives of all who cross his path. It is the district of Suffolk that binds them together, a place so carefully and imaginatively constructed that it evokes the novels of William Faulkner. Through a beautifully crafted mosaic of different voices brought to life in dazzling, original prose, this novel creates a world that breaks new ground in literary convention and leaves a mark long after its poignant end.