The intersecting worlds of the two novellas in Rich People in Santa Barbra are worlds of privilege, worlds with eerie shadows beneath the surface.

In Montecito Peak, Barbara Palmer, who is very rich—“I was born lucky”—is a good mother to fourteen-year-old Betsy, the guiding light of Bird of Paradise Books, an involved member of the Concours d’Elegance committee. But emotionally she’s treading water. Her husband is a peevish alcoholic. He’s a terrible father. No one would think less of her if she divorced him. But he would still always be in her life being a drag. Then one day Barbara falls in love with Mike Brooke. A reciprocated love. The odious husband has to go.

In The Polo Club, Lydia Graham is a garden designer who grew up in Montecito. Her husband is a longboard surfer who’s good at making money. He’s a great father to their fifteen-year-old daughter. It’s a happy marriage. Then Hunter Evans, a man whom Lydia knew when she was fourteen and he was thirty-two, returns to Santa Barbara. Socially connected, still terribly attractive—and a dubious character—he rents a condo at the Polo Club. He understands Lydia all too well, and suddenly he’s a danger to her marriage. This cannot be allowed.