The book explores the connection between a person's urban surroundings and subconsciousness as a major factor in defining the concepts of "space" and "place". The author looks at how empty and abandoned space takes the form of a meaningful and emotionally- charged social haven through memory, attachment and interaction. From the boundaries of the home to shared public gardens and streets, space is endlessly moulded according to a shifting personal and social consciousness. Looking at Freud's notions of the "heimlich" and "unheimlich" takes us around a city not merely as a physical construction but as a structure inside a person's mind that could be regarded as both a personal and intimate realm, as well as shared with others in order to form an emotionally stained place of high private and public significance.