This collection of personal stories reveals just how powerfully one man's present has been shaped by the richness of his past. Following his parents' divorce in segregated pre-Castro Miami in the late 1950s, Peter Rupert Lighte moved with his fragile mother to New York City, where he was raised amidst a community of eccentric and loving relatives and friends. In Host of Memories, he shares tales of his early years as an awkward "only child"; his Jewish roots; his fortuitous encounters with Chinese culture; his embrace of sexuality; life in Beijing, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo; dreams of fatherhood; and much more. He ultimately find his future husband—a distinguished English composer—and, together with their two adopted daughters, as sense of belonging.