In 'The wind and other children', a girl searches for her lost grandmother while her parents quarrel at home; in 'Extra time', a man contemplates inertia after toxic contamination changes life in a remote Australian town; a woman imagines a mother's love for her autistic son in 'The air you need'; and in 'Hello, Satan', a boy awaits his destiny at a roundabout at midnight, on the edge of a small town.

In exploring the human, Jennifer Mills deftly weaves themes of longing, alienation, delusion, resilience, and love. Sometimes dreamy and hypnotic, sometimes comic and wry, these stories leave their mark. Collected or on their own, Mills' fiction is both a joy and a wonder to read.