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A married woman tries to end a friend’s pursuit, only to discover that her principles are less secure than his attention makes them seem.
An eloquent abbot leaves his desert monastery to condemn the city’s sins, then discovers how seductive a warning can become.
A married young woman crosses the river at night to meet an idle village watchman, knowing the morning will demand an answer.
At a remote railway station on New Year’s Eve, a bored official dares fate to prove that his life can still become worse.
A young officer visits an unconventional distillery owner to collect a debt and finds his principles tested by her unsettling charm.
A stranded hospital assistant seeks shelter at a rural inn and finds himself drawn to the dangerous freedom of its notorious guests.
On Christmas Eve, a resentful shoemaker meets a strange customer and gets a chance to trade poverty for wealth.
A cook who considers himself a great philosopher receives a visit from the Devil and tries to bargain away his soul.
Toby Dammit's habit of betting the Devil his head becomes literal when a stranger accepts the wager at a covered bridge.
A daring flirt makes her persistent admirer earn his chance during a wild-boar hunt at a Norman château.
A nostalgic former clerk recalls the sunny Sunday walk when helping a lost couple led him far from his map and his innocence.
A respectable provincial woman visits Paris determined to sample the glamorous vice she has imagined from newspapers and fashionable gossip.
Two lovers exchange letters over whether physical desire corrupts love or completes it.
Five bored men ask a doctor for a new pleasure, and his account of ether offers more temptation than warning.
A married couple stages an illicit evening together, only for honest questions to become more stimulating than the disguise.
A provincial town crowns its shyest young man as a model of virtue, then watches its solemn civic experiment take an unruly turn.
In colonial Algeria, a traveler’s affair with a married woman leads him from sensual confidence into a reckless encounter under her husband’s roof.
A rebellious law student smuggles a shopgirl into his strict Breton landlady’s house and learns her rules have unexpected limits.
A sheltered mill owner’s wife discovers Parisian flirtation, then mistakes the force of a dream for love.
A boastful old bachelor recalls his first society affair and the practical lesson he learned about privacy.
A fallen log prompts an old bachelor to explain how one dangerous evening ended a close friendship and settled his view of marriage.
A peasant clown leaves the hospital with a healed leg and twenty-five francs, then spends his reward on a hazardous return to pleasure.
A young schoolmaster receives a golden fruit said to grant perfect knowledge, just as he begins his respectable new career.
A stubborn skeptic discovers that any command he truly wills becomes real, though precision is not among his gifts.
