Love begins in winter
The narrator is Bruno, a professional violinist who plays in several shows. He is famous and loved by many of his audience. He says that his violin is from his grandfather. While he was walking in the streets one day, he saw a shadow of a woman who held a paper that had "Allez" written on it.
There was an old man in Beverley Hills park who caused everyone's attention. The birds are extremely attracted to him and follow his orders. He is strange, and doesn't like being asked questions. However, one day a woman asked for his name, and after a few attempts of asking the same question, he said that is was Jonathan. In a cafe, the woman told her friend that she knew the birdman's name, but her friend suddenly ran for the bathroom and started crying.
An anonymous narrator starts telling the story of young Jonathan, her brother, whom she loved so much and spent almost all of her time with. However, Jonathan died suddenly one winter night because he climbed a tree and was stuck in the branch. He did not call out for help, and they didn't find him until he fell with the branch, frozen to death.
The woman went to the park with false hopes that this could be her brother somehow, but it turned out he was not. Bruno, the narrator, and Hannah, the woman, meet and fall in love. They kiss and hangout and do all what lovers could. After one year of the first time they met, Jonathan, the birdman in the park, dies. The first short story ends.
Tiger, tiger
The narrator is a woman this time, and her boyfriend is called Brian. Brian's parents separate when his father decides to leave Jennifer (his mother), because he is having an affair with another woman. They had been married for more than 3 decades. The narrator is a pediatric doctor.
She and Brian love each other strongly, but decide that their relationship will remain without marriage. Jennifer's doctor, Dr. Felixson, is also a pediatric doctor who wrote books about children and how to understand them. The narrator loved the books so much and started to read of them more and asked for his journals. When she decided that she wanted to meet the doctor in person, she discovers that he died. She also discovers that Dr. Felixson and Jennifer had a small affair a while ago, before separating with her husband.
The Missing Statues
A businessman suddenly breaks down into tears in the middle of the park, and a priest calms him down and persuades him to tell him why he started crying that hard when he saw the statues. He told him the statues had one missing, and that reminded him of his childhood.
His mother, Molly, married a man who, once she got pregnant from him, left her. Molly and her son, Max, were left to live on their own. One day, while they were sitting in front of a bar, an Italian man came to them and offered a piece of tiramisu. At first Molly was skeptic, but agreed for the sake of Max. People called this man Richard. He offered them to go inside with him and they agreed. Max fell in love with him, and Molly, by the end of their hangout, also fell in love.
The Coming and Going of Strangers
Walter is an Irish gypsy who decided to tell the story of his parents. His parents' families worked in the same type of jobs, and they fell in love and got married.
One day, Walter's father suddenly heard his kids screaming when they were standing on a cliff. He found out that a girl fell off the cliff into the water and jumped immediately to save her. He broke some bones, but eventually survived and saved the girl's life. The girl's father was a non-romany, and gypsies and non-romanies were not good friends. However, the father was so grateful to Walter's father that he gave him a huge piece of land as a gift.
The girl's family move to Dublin, and another family move in their place. That girl turns to be Walter's love, and he discovers that she is an orphan whose parents died recently in the car crash and lived with her sister and their uncle Popsy who decided to raise them. They moved from Canada to Ireland.
Walter is extremely in love with this girl that he could die for her. He decides to give them some eggs and polishes them. He also stays by their window and quietly observes her. One time as he was watching the family, a little girl appeared and frightened him. It turns out to be Jane, the girl's little sister. She asks Walter to take her to the sea at night because she is not allowed to go there alone, and none of her family will know. He agrees.
The story shift to the future, where Jane is a mother now with two daughters. Her sister died of cancer a couple of years ago. Eventually, we discover that Walter married her and not her sister.
The City of Windy Trees
George Frack is a lonely man with a miserable life. He has no family and has a boring job. One day, he receives a letter that changes his life.
One night, George decided to go to his ex-girlfriend's wedding and destroy the cake, so he stayed in a hotel close to the place of the wedding. He met Marie there and they stayed together for the night.
Later, we discover that the letter is from Marie, telling him to see his daughter, Charlotte, in Sweden. So, George travels to Sweden right away. He meets Charlotte who is in great shock when she knows that he is her father. They spend a good time together, as well as with Marie's fiance, Philip, who encouraged her to write George a letter from the start.
