The residents of the small Oregon coastal town of Klatsand navigate the shifting tides of personal identity and community development as their quiet home transforms into a tourist destination. Through a series of interconnected narratives, the author examines the lives of resourceful women who manage local businesses, maintain family lineages, and grapple with the encroaching influence of the outside world. The narrative framework utilizes a mosaic approach, shifting perspectives between various townspeople to build a comprehensive portrait of a place defined by its geography and its inhabitants. These characters face the logical constraints of isolation, economic change, and the persistent pull of their own histories.

This collection is widely regarded as a nuanced study of place and the quiet resilience of its inhabitants. Readers often note the author's ability to render the Oregon coast with sensory precision, grounding the human drama in a tangible, rugged environment. The prose is frequently praised for its restraint, allowing the internal lives of the women in Klatsand to unfold without unnecessary artifice. The work serves as a testament to the author's versatility, moving away from speculative themes to focus on the complexities of contemporary human connection.