In The Verdigris Stories, the conditions of impermanence and interaction usher us into the world of the collection. The tone of these eleven stories shifts from lyricism to absurdity, conjuring the characters' changing environments and interior lives. For some, the past is in pursuit, nipping at their heels; for others, present possibilities hold sway. In either case a sense of dislocation, either by choice or circumstance, is intrinsic to their lives as perpetual wanderers or outsiders.

Among the wanderers we meet a bereaved lover on her return to a village in Brazil; a pair of estranged sisters warily reuniting in Prague; and a peculiar woman hosting ghosts in her home. In these and the other stories, lives separate and intersect; arrivals and departures become catalysts for change.