This collection of interwoven short stories revolves around a small Southern women's college and its inhabitants. Written in first-person from various perspectives, the stories combine, much like Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, to create a final cohesive work that is not quite a novel. Main characters include the gentle, introspective teenage son of a faculty member, the garrulous student with whom he is enamored, and her skeptic of a half-sister. One parallel narrative involves a search for self and story through music and musicians, the other via a campus ghost. The focus, as with Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding, is character-driven rather than plot-based. Shared experiences--an ice storm, a betrayal by college trustees--are viewed through multiple characters, leading to a decision each, though searching for connection, must make alone.