The mystery of the light in Vermeer's famous painting illuminates a writer's love for his mother; a travelling lingerie salesman is helped miraculously by a rock musician as he waits for his son who has run away; an emigrant returned from America describes his experiences to his nephew. The theme of non-communication in human relationships in a world saturated with information is the connecting thread in this collection of stories by the author of The Carpenter's Pencil. The everyday lives of Rivas's memorable Galician characters may be desperately harsh and filled with pain and solitude, but their situations are always redeemed by humour and tenderness. Vermeer's Milkmaid includes the three stories published by The Harvill Press as Butterfly's Tongue and upon which Jose Luis Cuerda's acclaimed film of the same title is based.