Rich and resonant, these stories follow the lives of characters whose obsession with the past illuminates their otherwise ordinary lives. In A Christmas Cordial, an elderly spinster creates a cordial brewed from notes given to her from an 18th-century writer. The Battle of Manila chronicles the tale of a mother whose grief for her lost soldier son has turned to madness, but whose spirit remains unbroken. In Wine, Women and Song two women await the return of their men at the end of World War II, bracing for the seismic changes that the peace will bring. In 1920 Major Colin French, the central character of the title novella Dark Continent, arrives in the dusty town of St. Elmo, California, at the behest of British lawyers seeking to settle a vast inheritance left by a lord of the realm. These are characters, who transform pain into strength. These are stories linked by the powers-and perils-of love, the imagination, of memory and magic.