"Birdie Wainwright sees things--purple flowers growing out of floors and alpine slopes where her stairs ought to be. But she's not worried. It's just her macular degeneration acting up. No vision is going to stop this tango-loving grandmother! ... Then one day, she sidesteps an imaginary boulder---and tumbles down the stairs. The bad news? A broken ankle. The worse news? She must convalesce at her son's home, under the harsh eye of her daughter-in-law....

Something wondrous happens in the sun-drenched seaside village of San Clemente. Each day in the telephony where Jenna Archer is the de facto curator, regular visitors receive calls from their pasts with hopes of regaining their futures. Despite these brushes with the mystical, Jenna's life is shrinking. Her brother Brian went missing seventeen years ago, and her mother's vigil is more prison than sanctuary. A telephone rings for Jenna. She speaks...