From the depths of the abyss to the farthest reaches of space, Greg Bear has gained a well-deserved reputation as a masterful writer of hard science fiction. But there are other worlds and characters Bear has explored that readers might not be aware of: A woman longing for companionship, who ultimately turns to the most unexpected of sources for help in creating a lover, an innocent-looking child who holds the darkest of secrets, and a prostitute who offers far more than a night of passion to the one person she considers her last hope in exorcising a terrible curse. This is a different sort of haunted house story, set on an infinitely long space station called the Way, where portals to alternate realities await the traveller.