Ruth Rendell's seventh collection of short stories also includes two unpublished novellas.

The title story is about a man whose life, in a sense, is a book. There are shelves in every room, packed with titles which Ambrose Ribbon has checked pedantically for mistakes of grammar and fact. Life for Ribbon, without his mother now, is lonely and obsessive. He still keeps her dressing table exactly as she had left it, the wardrobe door always open so that her clothes can be seen inside, and her pink silk nightdress folded on the bed... There is one book too that he associates particularly with her - volume VIII of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Piranha to Scurfy. It marked a very significant moment in their relationship.

The second novella, High Mysterious Union, explores a strange, erotic universe in a dream-like corner of rural England, and illustrates very atmospherically what range Ruth Rendell has as a writer.

In the other stories, Ruth Rendell deals with a variety of themes, some macabre, some vengeful, some mysterious, all precisely observed.