In an eclectic collection of stories, plays, essays, and poems written over a number of years, Tom Vander Ven examines the various stages of life and the preoccupations particular to each. Vander Ven taught English at IU South Bend from 1967 to 2001, when he retired. Thus the collection draws on memories of work, love, and leisure alike, weaving them into a portrait of the author's life along with the lives that touched and shaped it. In addition, the book is home to many color illustrations by Cyndi Vander Ven and other artists, adding a visual element by which readers share in the author's journey through memories sometimes vivid and close, sometimes distant and ghostly.