Comprising six New York-set short stories and a novella rooted in Golden Age Hollywood, this collection centres on the fateful consequences of brief encounters. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In the novel Rules of Civility, Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles.