In a customer review it is characterized as a “unfinished children’s story”, and its publication in Light from a Lone Star “clearly is intended more for scholars of Vance’s work than for his fans”. Foreverness calls it “First chapter and outline of unfinished novel” (ref. 1, 2).

Summary on jackvance.com:

While in Rome, art student Chuck Musgrave is offered a job painting pictures of Positano, a picturesque town south of Naples. When Chuck arrives in Positano, strange things begin to happen. It becomes clear that not all foreigners living in Positano are there for the scenery!

Foreverness writes that the book was written during Vance’s second stay in Positano (below Napels, Italy), in 1957. [ref]

Republished as Strange People, Queer Notions, Spatterlight, 2012