Three friends stop in the Périgord town of Brantôme, en route to a wedding, planning to do no more than mooch about, eat good food and reminisce about past times.

But over the course of the next two days, amidst the melancholy surroundings of a rain sodden landscape, and a town yet to awake for the season, it becomes clear that there is much that these oldest of friends do not know about each other, as their long anticipated reunion reveals an intricate web of misconception, heartache and desire.

This is one of the stories in this collection of long and short fiction, by the author of A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity and The Gates of Walpurgis.

In addition to this tale of an uneasy reunion in a flooded town; read about an obsession with a beautiful singer in a restaurant in Carcassonne; a relationship under scrutiny in a Gascogny forest; a journey through a blizzard with a perfect stranger; a terrifying encounter with true evil on a west country moor, as well as a manifestation of true love in a Hampshire churchyard; an enchantment so ephemeral, it might not even be real; and finally, in a short novel to bookend the collection, love and betrayal in the shadow of the Pyrenees.