Innocence, fear, and intrigue permeate this collection of interrelated stories, which span more than four hundred years, from the time of the fictional Datu Kalantiaw to the postmodern phenomenon of migrant labor. The result is a concatenation of tales, legends, official history, alternative histories, mythic and fairy-tale formulas, and all manner of discourse that the author could pull out of the cornucopia of texts that compose Philippines island life.