Carry Nation is on the loose again, smashing topless bars as she radicalizes women and preaches clean living to men.... Mrs. Gulliver's patience with her long-voyaging Lemuel is wearing thin: Money is short and the kids can't even remember what their dad looks like.... The ever-faithful Tonto is turning forty -- and not so much as a birthday phone call from that masked man....

In these and thirteen other fantastical short fictions, Karen Joy Fowler turns accepted norms inside out and fairy tales upside down, as she playfully pushes us to reconsider life's fragile realities.