A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
Where does the story take place?
A childhood memory of an old seamstress opens onto the secret act of courage that shaped her entire life.
An old school friend visits a conservative country household and treats their hospitality as permission to remake it.
Two tipsy noblewomen trade secrets, and one boasts of turning a servant’s devotion into summer entertainment.
An aging actress welcomes a traveler into the flower-covered villa where she lives with portraits of the men who loved her.
A man who fears his own hands demonstrates a power over minds and objects that leaves his friend unsure whether either of them is sane.
During the Prussian occupation, a young Frenchwoman is drawn into an officers’ supper where humiliation sharpens into resistance.
A drunken wrong turn at a country wedding leaves a determined bachelor facing a second ceremony he never planned.
A writer reflects on the attraction and menace of cats before recalling a night when one seemed to rule an old castle.
Unable to sleep in an old family bedroom, a guest discovers secret love letters hidden beneath its severe former occupant’s portrait.
A veteran practical joker recalls the night suspicion made him his own victim and the chemical prank he played as a boy.
A lifelong sportsman considers marriage at fifty, then travels to Paris to test whether neglect has left him unfit for it.
A shopkeeper’s unwanted kiss becomes a scandal, and the charming friend sent to repair it proves no model of restraint.
A doctor’s defense of a desperate mother leads him to recount a widow’s struggle with pregnancy and public shame.
A would-be lover accepts a suspiciously welcoming husband's invitation and discovers a precise defense against adultery.
At a Norman farm, a baron explains why the tenant who serves him faithfully also makes him feel like a forgiven culprit.
A dying woman on the sunny Riviera remembers the cold Norman marriage that made illness feel like her only path to escape.
A bickering couple hears a midnight intruder in the garden, and the husband’s investigation changes their marriage.
An exile has built a fortune around one plan: return to the woman whose love ruined him.
A shaved moustache sends a society woman from bedroom complaint to a memory of recognizing French soldiers among the dead.
An aging sportsman keeps hunting season alive through elaborate dinners, improbable anecdotes, and one coveted delicacy.
A young man explains how his mother’s final testament exposed the truth behind a brutal country household.
A suitor under constant observation begins a secret affair, then mistakes the wrong woman at a château window.
A chance meeting in a beer hall reveals why a once-privileged schoolmate has spent his adult life drinking at the same table.
A terrified Prussian straggler searches occupied Normandy for the safest possible enemy: someone willing to take him prisoner.
