This collection of stories features characters who "sound" their pasts, their childhoods, their families, and their obsessions, sometimes surfacing with gained clarity, and sometimes losing themselves to the depths. The collection takes its title from the opening story where the narrator becomes increasingly obsessed with tracking a group of whales by sound. The title holds the literal meaning of whales sounding (diving), and the metaphorical idea of delving into some unknown or revisited place or memory, sending out a voice or a thought, and listening to the echoes. The ensuing stories further explore this theme in a mix of realistic and fantastical settings, from a cub scout pack and a small town church, to communities inhabited by a Father Time character and miniature doppelgangers. The collection also holds a particularly strong attachment to the forests, coastline, and small towns of New England.