Set in western Canada, in both urban and rural locations, these nine stories are both timely and timeless and showcase Vanderhaeghe's supreme talent as a storyteller and poignant observer of the human condition. His wit and insights are razor sharp. In the powerful title story, a middle-aged man re-meets his former adviser at university, a charismatic and domineering left-wing professor they dub Daddy Lenin. As their tense reunion progresses, secrets from the past painfully revise remembered events and threaten to topple the scaffolding of a marriage.