Of the six grown-up siblings at the heart of the story, one lives with children she and her husband produced; one has children by more than one father, including three brothers she calls the Three Wise Men; and one has a foster child whose short past is too unbearable to contemplate.

The others don't have families - unless you count the eccentric brother who takes on the bad-girl niece because she sees the same ghosts he does, or the sister and her woman lover who end up co-parenting a troubled little boy, or the other sister who mothers some of her kids' half-siblings when their "real" mother takes off without warning.

And just to keep everyone on their toes, there are regular but unpredictable appearances by the squeyanx, a character related to no one and to everyone, part ghost, part trickster, part Greek chorus, who is visible only to those who want to see.