A superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman.

"Peter Decker and his current partner, Tyler McAdams, believes that a developmentally disabled man who vanished while on an outing from his residential home, went off with someone he knew, even as the remains of other young men are unearthed in the forest. And for Decker, personal problems are adding pressure as well. After a ten-year absence, the biological mother of Decker's and Rina's foster son, Gabriel, has suddenly appeared in New York"-- Provided...

In Mallory, New York, as five sisters, aged eleven to seventeen, deal with assorted problems, conflicts, fears, and yearnings, a mysterious middle-aged man watches them, fascinated, deciding which one he likes the best.

"As the new millennium approaches, the eccentric town of Thebes grows even stranger. Clocked by a Catholic statuette, Mrs. Leontina Scales begins speaking in tongues. Her daughter, Tabitha Scales, and her sons scheme to save their mother or surrender her to Jesus--whatever comes first. Meanwhile, choir director Jeremy Carr, caught between lust and ambition, fumbles his way toward Y2K. Only a modern master like Gregory Maguire can spin a tale this...