When past and present converge, the characters in these short stories must reexamine the future they planned. Myriad characters and situations populate these stories pushing the characters to decide whether to risk changing their lives as they face loss, love, and revelations. In these short stories of beginnings and endings, of recognizing moments of before and after, of choosing to stay or leave, of facing a future divergent from expectations, lives a thread of hope in life’s ability to transform.