The secretary seeking a cosmopolitan lifestyle in Europe's most sophisticated city; the architect whose secret life is about to become all too public; the delighted beneficiary of a superb inheritance: all very different people trying to make the best of their ordinary lives. But all of them will turn out to have something in common when they are thrown in at the deep end in situations that will turn on its head everything they have ever taken for granted.When drowning in a puddle becomes a real danger; when an imaginary friend becomes a terrifying threat; when the gift of a lifetime turns out to have come from a formidable -- and less than friendly -- source: only then will the cast of characters in this deeply chilling collection of stories really begin to understand what the feeling of fear really means.