With a visceral bite or a surreal edge, each electrically charged story in Circling the Drain presents women trying to understand the nature of loss - with leaving or being left - and discovering that in the throes of feverish conflict, things are rarely what they seem.

Seduced by her boyfriend into committing a horrible crime against her family, the young woman in "Red Lights Like Laughter" suddenly understands the enormity of her mistake - but only as she realizes that the events she helped put in motion have gathered a momentum that she is powerless to stop.

In "Prints," a woman recalls the mysterious disappearance of her older sister, whose tragic fate she refused to comprehend until irrefutable evidence unearthed years later proves what she really knew to be true all along.

"Faith or Tips for the Successful Young Lady" follows a young girl's return to high school after recovering at a psychiatric hospital from an attempted suicide. Having lost fifty-eight pounds during her stay, she hopes people will finally notice her, but her days are haunted by a fat girl only she can see - a hideous, distorted version of her former self - who whispers the bitter truth in her ear and urges her to get revenge.