Each of the stories in this collection began with a photograph and the ideas the photograph evoked in the author. A photograph of gravestones in a cemetery is the source of the story of an older man's reflections on his life and the deaths of his wife and children; a photograph of a soldier from the Korean War era provides the inspiration for a story about a soldier in Iraq facing the realization that the enemy is a young man much like himself; the photograph of a cross on a building is the basis of a story about the young man who sees it and, as a result, changes his life. In the longest story, two gay men give parallel accounts of the journeys that led them to find one another.

Each story explores the way men of varying ages and backgrounds experience love and grief, joy and spiritual transformation in the course of their daily lives.