"On a cold quiet day between Christmas and New Year, a man's body is found in an abandoned apartment. His friends look on from the shadows, a chorus keeping vigil as the hours pass, paying homage as their friend's body is taken away, examined, investigated, and cremated. All of their stories are laid out piece by broken piece through a series of fractured narratives - of lives fallen through the cracks, hopes flaring and dying, love overwhelmed by a stronger need, and the havoc wrought by drugs, distress, and the disregard of the wider world. These invisible people live in a parallel reality, out of reach of basic creature comforts, like food and shelter. In their sudden deaths, it becomes clear, they are treated with more respect than they were in their short lives."--Back cover.