merging the passion and wit of irish storytelling with the down-to-earth flavour of other international locations around the world , these stories include : a ringmasters daughter who is too implausible to be true despite all the evidence to the contrary an ageing nightclub gigolo in one last desperate bid to best a younger rival an irish consultant whose uncomplicated affair with a public service colleague proves anything but an irish career woman in london stalked by a mysterious figure from her past a sleep-deprived translator struggling to make sense of bizarre events in a french city .