The seventeen stories in this, the finest collection of Doris Lessing's short fiction, all share the same assured mastery of insight and compassion. They may be set in Africa, England, Germany, or France; their themes may range from the sexual dilemma of a too-attractive woman to the perilous initiation into manhood of a young boy; their tone may be dryly ironic, cuttingly satiric, brilliantly realistic, or powerfully tragic.