Twelve stories that provide startling glimpses of contemporary life in Bombay, and elsewhere. An innocuous jazz concert that awakens painful memories for a middle-aged caregiver, a wealthy business woman compelled by the desire to hurt her best friend, a lonely, old woman in a Tokyo apartment who seeks the touch of a baby's hand. Tales about friendship and repulsion, family ties and freedom; violence, public and private; ambition and uncertainty, alienation and acceptance, growing up and growing old.