In the Vienna subway, one can follow a blind person to leave all darkness behind. In the wintry snow of Val di Sella in Trentino, two women and a man search for the quiet traces of their past. A wellness hotel in the mountains turns out to be the final destination for a humiliated wife. And under the sounds of a concert by Maurice Ravel, an apparent happiness melts away. Whether at the westernmost point of Europe or in their hometown of Merano, whether as a child in Milan or simply along the river, the protagonists in Anne Marie Pircher's stories always follow the lines that life draws. With sober melancholy, with suggestion and omission, the author masterfully narrates times of transition, the comedy and tragedy of the seemingly everyday, and the ambivalence of existence.