In "Starkweather's Eyes" a grieving son remembers his frightened mother and absent father in the fall of 1957 when the notorious teenage mass murderer rampaged across Nebraska. "Babyman" depicts a bitter and obsessed Detroit rent-a-cop who exploits women and their babies until he meets a woman tougher than he is. A woman whose third marriage is faltering has an erotic encounter on an Amtrak train that causes her to reexamine her life's old and new losses in "Seven.". The title novella portrays a drifter riding the rails into a mountain town where his desperation spawns a mesmerizing spate of violence. In language rich in metaphor and detail, Condon's stories expose the turbulences of the human spirit and reveal the outside-chance possibilities his characters have for grace.