Three science fiction stories, exploring themes of desperation, tentative hope, and disillusionment.

"Cocktail": In the near future, a young woman takes desperate measures to make the rent, but comes face to face with the inventor of the dangerous system that controls her fate.

"Coils": A woman from a distant tribe is sent on a mission to a planetary prison colony. If only she could recall what that mission was.

"Where Your Dreams May Take You": In an alternate, post-WWI world, a hospital orderly’s life is turned upside down by a near-immortal socialite from the Harlem Renaissance.