Robert, Cass, and Julia share a complex history going back to their college days in California-a triangle of lovers; a baby born in a marijuana field; a night of changing names and fleeing to Seattle. There are scars from ax blades and broken glass. Uneasy truces. Prying neighbors. The threat of war. And enough vegetables growing in the yard to feed a household through the winter. Now, on the morning of Robert Hamlin's 45th birthday, in the last year of setting fire to the world, everything is about to ignite again. How many strangers make a family? When does water flow thicker than blood? The universe is a random and violent place, after all, where souls-the lucky ones-find their way back eventually to the source of human kindness. Tucker collects his characters from the streets and his hopes for them from the stars. This is the story of human history, staged on a sixth of an acre in north Seattle.