In December 1900, three lighthouse keepers on a remote Scottish island - battered by Atlantic storms and the intense emotions of confinement - disappear without trace, leaving an enduring mystery in this most mysterious of places. A hack-writer in early Los Angeles turns up at dusk to interview for the job of his life. Two discontented comedians try to break the stranglehold of the Hollywood studio system, not long after the advent of sound, and an old Yorkshireman draws his curious grand-daughter into a hair-raising tale that will change them both for good. Working a broader canvas than the punchy flash fiction of his previous collection, in these four novellas James Roderick Burns explores the biggest questions of all - what really matters to us, when everything is said and done? Should we listen to our head, or our heart?

And when the heart is in charge, what nightmares may come?