In this collection of longer essays nested within brief, lyrical meditations, each piece focuses on some micro aspect of everyday life as a means of exploring complex macro systems—families, dinner parties, vineyards, deserts, nations. For example, Walker’s own experience as the mother of a micropreemie “the smallest thing in the world,” spurs an exploration of, among other things, the economics of health care, the causes of premature births, and the ethics of extreme interventions.