Nick Arvin grew up in Michigan and has degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and Stanford. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he is the author of two books: In the Electric Eden: Stories and Articles of War, named in Books of the Year in the Independent and Esquire magazine. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Rocky Mountain News, and his numerous awards include the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Boyd Award from the American Library Association, the Colorado Book Award, and fellowships from the Michener-Copernicus Society, the Isherwood Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

At a loose end after his engineering degree, Ellis Barstow drifts back to his home town and finds work in the grisly profession of reconstructing fatal traffic accidents. He immediately takes to the strange, dark work of a reconstructionist and comes to admire and respect his boss and mentor, John Boggs, an intriguing character of few but telling words. Gradually, we learn why Ellis was drawn to this job. He is still haunted by the fatal crash that killed his half-brother Christopher; in fact his life has been shaped by car accidents. But Boggs, in his exacting way, would argue that 'accident' is not the right word, that if two cars meeting at an intersection can be called an accident then anything can - where we live, what we do, even who we fall in love with. For Ellis these things are certainly no accident. Ellis is working for Boggs because he's in love with Boggs' wife Heather. Ellis has carried a torch for Heather ever since she dated Christopher in the months before his death. When Boggs discovers the affair, he disappears on a suicidal tour of all the accident sites he and Ellis have worked at. Ellis follows, torn between his feelings for his lover and his friend, in a desperate cat-and-mouse game that finally leads him to confront his brother's death.