Sons longing for love and respect; fathers, excruciatingly strict or miserably inadequate; husbands following their wives into foreign lands; couples confronting the madness of everyday life or the unknown; businessmen with superstitious, suspicious collaborators; barkeepers following strange calls – all of Humphrey Gudgeon's characters feel small at some point in their lives, small like the stuffed companion in the first story, small when facing the challenges of the human condition and yearning to escape what W. H. Auden called 'the prison of days'. With a sharp analytical eye, with humour, critical evaluation and affectionate sympathy, Gudgeon's poignant stories offer a Joycean portrait of the lifelong struggle of individuals against the constraints of their upbringing and the limitations of their positions in the adult world.