A tea leaf reader sets someone on a fresh path; a friendship is tested by unreasonable behaviour; a lesbian couple argue over grammar; a woman swims laps for a stranger. Startling and at times surreal, Janis Freegard’s stories are wise, weird, wonderful and wild.

Sometimes touching, sometimes troubling, these adventures introduce us to women who don’t stand still: scandalous women, runaway women, daring women. From a teenage fugitive seeking safety in an Auckland strip club to a biologist on her way to Moeraki to reconnect with an old flame, Freegard’s female characters take agency. They try to enlarge their own lives. Sometimes their choices delight; sometimes their wildness leaves heartache in its wake.