In these nine brilliant stories, love and marriage are examined and re-examined from a variety of perspectives, all provocative, all troubling. A teacher falls in love with her student, a sister dances naked for her brother, a wife loves her husband's mistress, a widow learns the close relationship between love and death, a trilogy explores the course of a marriage shot through with secrets, and the irrationality and mystery of love are discovered over and over again. The dream house of the title story is the one beneath the surface, the private house, where love opens up new avenues of intimacy, news ways of knowing another person. In Barbara Bean's debut collection, we are introduced to a striking new voice in contemporary fiction, a voice at once sexy, funny, wise -- and unforgettable.