A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
The narrator’s attitude toward the story.
As a child lies gravely ill, his mother and longtime doctor confront a question that has festered between them for years.
An accomplished engineer complains that the public knows performers and criminals better than builders and scholars—until his seatmate tests the claim.
A society hostess dazzled by artistic celebrity overlooks the quiet distinction of the doctor she has married.
A dignified old gardener answers a debate about justice with a legend about a town’s extraordinary faith in human goodness.
A sick doctor finds a telegram that confirms his wife’s affair and tries to release them both from a ruined marriage.
A stranded hospital assistant seeks shelter at a rural inn and finds himself drawn to the dangerous freedom of its notorious guests.
A vain provincial actor’s boast about a conquest turns dangerous when one listener knows the woman and demands satisfaction.
A small-town mayor sees a visiting Persian dignitary as his best chance to acquire the decoration he covets.
On New Year’s Eve, a young woman peers into a mirror for a glimpse of marriage and sees far more of its demands than she expected.
A possible lottery win gives a comfortable couple a sudden view of riches—and of each other.
A teacher terrified of disorder hides behind rules and routines, until a lively woman and her defiant brother disturb his sealed existence.
A widow’s annual temperance luncheon drives her respectable guests to increasingly elaborate errands.
A wealthy engineer and a poor village try to become good neighbors, but suspicion and small grievances steadily undo their goodwill.
A pregnant hostess endures a long name-day party while resentment, jealousy, and fatigue expose the strain in her marriage.
A gentle lawyer accepts a retired Cossack’s hospitality and spends a sleepless night inside the old man’s brutal, self-satisfied world.
A wealthy princess seeks spiritual peace at a monastery, where a former employee challenges her cherished image of her own goodness.
At his daughter’s requiem, a proud village shopkeeper tries to reconcile religious judgment with the child he barely knew.
A young teacher wins the domestic happiness he imagined, only to find contentment raising questions about the life he has chosen.
In a shuttered provincial house, a mother and daughter sew endlessly for a marriage that remains only a hope.
Newly married to a wealthy older colonel, a young woman remains fixated on the indifferent friend she once hoped to marry.
A jealous sexton blames his wife for every storm that sends a young traveler to their isolated hut.
A stranded fugitive boards a living spaceship and begins planning how to make its extraordinary power his own.
During the Roman siege of Jerusalem, three temple officials pay the soldiers below for animals to use in sacrifice.
A guide takes a modern visitor through ancient Antioch, where a violent king prepares an animal costume for his latest public triumph.
