In these stories, characters' bodies trouble their souls, stirring questions about why we are here and how we are to live. Confronted by their own vulnerabilities, they must also contend with the weaknesses of those they want to love. Will they find their trust well placed; will they rise to moments of grace-or will their lives crack under pressure? These stories seek to do justice in art to the human condition's real, though fleeting, gifts-to our much-explored, but only ever partially understood, potential for comic resolution, tragic failure, and the substance of things hoped for between the two.