'We gather around the hospital bed in late December 2022 where my Aunty Gail lies, brittle but accepting of the terms on which the cells of her body will soon embark on their mass migration from life to death. Gail is my mother’s sister and the eldest of five. For decades now, her body has been under siege. Cancer has claimed sovereignty over her cells, first in the form of breast tumours, then spreading, node to node. Now, her diagnosis is terminal, her days and breaths numbered. Her body is withering, curling up, transforming.' (Introduction)