There is a subtle magic in fleeting encounters that brush against the fabric of our lives - the stranger on a train who reminds you that life is short, a country walk that evokes long-buried childhood moments, a fragment of ancient ceramic that takes you back two hundred years, a chicken flapping its wings in a forest, a strain of music that answers a question, tango dancers late at night in a street far from home. In forty-three brilliantly vivid, poignant, funny, nuanced vignettes, five authors cast back to those crossroads where past meets present - to chance encounters which, no matter how brief, hold the potential to leave a lasting impression. Like the encounters themselves, these stories are fleeting. Reminders that life is not just about the grand, sweeping gestures, but also about the small, ephemeral moments that shape who we are and who we become.