While this collection stands on its own, Anderson's fans will recognize some characters from her previous work. Quilt maker and centenarian Twilight Dawn Johnson returns from The Well Ain't Dry Yet and The Bingo Cheaters, to stitch together the tales. In the first story, Twilight Dawn ruminates that it would take a powerful squeezing to turn Paul Goshen from a lump of coal into a gem. Paul, a prominent new character in the collection, first appears an aimless community college student. Readers follow him through the other characters' tales as he becomes a police officer- and the man his father knew he could be.