Driving to the seaside together are a young girl on the verge of womanhood, her mother and her stepfather with his son. But this is no ordinary trip. There's something sinister about Evan Charlton, and all too soon the girl is plunged into a nightmare world that she cannot understand.

This debut collection of short stories by the award-winning writer and journalist Nigel Jarrett brings together places of violence, longing, helplessness and vivid remembrance, where characters must cope with the darker side of human relationships, often inside the seemingly cosy world of the family.

From the Rhys Davies Prize-Winning story about a married Japanese woman risking a scandalous love-affair to a hotel in 1940s post-war Switzerland, Nigel's stories explore romance with tragedy, family with madness and the lives of people with a warm and tender humour.