Stories in this collection:

• Hell and Ohio
  A young man returns home from self-imposed exile to face a painful family reunion.
  


• The Lost Dog
  The search for a missing dog leads a father and son to a neighbor’s farm ... and a turning point in their own relationship.
  


• Unstable Ground
  An old man fumes but feels powerless to stop the personal and physical destruction going on next door.
  


• Fire
  A boy growing up in a close, hard-working family gets a taste of some harsher realities.
  


• First of the Month
  An ambitious truck driver gets the business opportunity he’s been looking for, but it comes with a lesson in human frailty.
  


• Eminent Domain
  A family gathers one last time at the homeplace they are leaving behind.
  


• As a Snare
  Relatives and neighbors exhort a young man to leave his life of partying behind and return to the church, and he finally decides he might as well give it a try.
  


• Eulogy
  A young woman comes home to the mountains for her grandmother’s funeral after having been away in the city for years.
  


• The Idea of It
  Chasing a romantic daydream of a life close to the land, a man and his family confront the reality of modern life in the hills where he was born.