"This ... collection of nine linked stories follows a diverse group of curiously interrelated characters - from bank manager to crackhead to retired Samaritan to mental patient to web designer to car thief - as they drift through each other's lives like ghosts in Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside"--Publisher.

Emergency contact -- Discard -- Goodbye porkpie hat -- The queen of cans and jars -- The extra -- An ideal companion -- King me -- The quiet -- The beggar's garden.