These stories involve ordinary people confronting extraordinary circumstances. A paperboy's favor for an elderly man on his route faces him with a profound ethical dilemma. A woman cannot decide whether to marry a neighbor who witnessed her husband's tragic fall from the neighbor's roof.The central theme these characters face is timeless: Do we shape the future, or does it shape us? On a mountaintop encounter, a man meets a mysterious stranger and must decide whether to follow the stranger's guidance. A woman hires a male nurse's aide for her mother with dementia, forcing the woman to face the complexities and contradictions of his caregiving.The stories are set in diverse places, from the vibrant streets of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s to the serene landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. Other tales unfold on an Iowa farm struck by a tornado and within a museum teetering on the brink of closure on New York City's Madison Avenue.