"Quietly heartbroken, Edwin Tully lives alone in the house he used to share with the man he once loved. He tends to damaged books and faded memories, trying to build a future from the fragments of the past. Then the weather turns, and the river spills into Edwin's quiet world, bringing with it Adam Dacre from the Environment Agency. An unlikely knight, this stranger with roughened hands and worn wellingtons offers Edwin the hope of something he thought...

Emmett Rensin shares a portrait of what it's like to live with schizoaffective disorder of the bipolar type as well as a critique of America's mental health culture. Going beyond pure memoir, Rensin reflects on the uncertain "science" of diagnosis, the nature of art about and by the insane, political activism, and the history of madness, from the asylum to the academy.

In Ueno Park, Tokyo, as workers and tourists gather for lunch, the pollen blows, a fountain erupts, pigeons scatter, and two women meet, changing the course of one another's lives. Dinah has come to Japan from New Zealand to teach English and grieve the death of her brother, Michael, a troubled genius who was able to channel his problems into music as a classical pianist until he wasn't. In the seemingly empty, eerie apartment block where Dinah has...