"Mud season, spring's dismal preamble, brings cold snaps and warm spells, snow squalls and downpours. Outlanders complain. Vermonters shrug. Today, the smell of mud and pine needles mingled with the steamy fragrance of maple sap drifting up through the woods from a sugar house across the lake. We would soon see snowdrops. And geese, on their way north."

In New England, mud season is a time of transition, when the frozen silence of winter yields to the warm melody of spring. It is often messy, occasionally dangerous, and ultimately glorious-much like life itself.

In this collection, Kristina Baer presents ordinary people challenged by physical danger, emotional trauma, and loss-a near-drowning; a parent's dementia; a sister's betrayal.

In the transition that follows, all make peace with the past, recognize their own enduring strength, and face the future with confidence and hope.