In stories within:

• The proprietor of a seaside resort puzzles over the yearly off-season pilgrimage of a curiously solemn couple and their fey child. ('The Ocean and All Its Devices')
• A marriage made in a heaven of parallel worlds is tested by impossible luck, both good and bad. ('The Oddskeeper's Daughter')
• A virtual reality addictions counselor is on the run with his zoned-out client, pursued by the relentless architects of a seductive virtual game called Apes and Angels. ('The Halfway House at the Heart of Darkness')
• A young girl, who speaks only in lines of poetry culled from world literature, is poised between two universes while a social worker struggles to save her -- and, perhaps, doom a universe. ('Foster Child')
• A circus magician races against time as the world threatens to end, not with a bang or a whimper, but with the flick of a switch. ('The Lights of Armageddon')