The four short stories which comprise this book are moral tales which compel us to look at the values which operate in our lives. The straight arrow narrator in "Accountant" succumbs to envy when he visits a San Francisco Giants fantasy camp run by a friend who has become a millionaire. In "The Palace Thief," a professor watches with dismay as a trouble-making youth who cheated as a student rises to power as a captain of industry. The other two stories deal with relations in the family context. Canin is an accomplished story writer who isn't afraid of dealing with the knotty issues of good and evil.