As Mrs Bea Davis waits in the airport for her flight home after a strained visit to her daughter, she notices a bashful-looking little boy and his harried mother. Something about them prompts memories from across her life to flood her mind and overflow, and as she reflects on her childhood, her marriage, and the speed with which her two girls grew up, the lines between past and present blur.

Riveting, strange and beautifully told, this finest of Mary Gaitskill's short stories takes a mundane moment and spins it out into an unforgettable account of the emotional truth of a woman's whole life.