From an old house with gingerbread in Vancouver - where it is possible to tell the days of the week by the smells drifting from the chocolate factory in the basement - to Dresden before the fire-storm, Nicaragua during the time of the Sandinistas, and Berlin in the last days of the war, these stories take us to places where our senses can expand. In a house by the sea, a woman struggles to discover her lover's secret thoughts. A ferry ride in Canada is taken by an unfaithful wife. A failed hero contemplates a final deadly game at harvest time. Characters who live in the grip of forces they cannot control - cravings, jealousies, obsessions, private terrors - look for truth, which lies in wait in dark, seductive places