Trapped in a London apartment, Beth remembers a transgressive love affair in 1960s Paris. The most famous writer in Russia takes his last breath in a stationmaster's cottage, miles from Moscow. A father, finally free of his daughter's demands, embarks on a long swim from his lakeside retreat. And in the grandest house of all, Danni the Polish housekeeper catches the eye of an enigmatic visitor, Daphne du Maurier. Rose Tremain—winner of the Orange Prize, the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize—here gives us an outstanding collection of 13 short stories. Her precise yet sensuous prose lays bare the admirable, the embarrassing, the unfulfilled, the sexy, and the adorable in her characters.