The volume opens with a long, confessional novella in which an obsessive jealousy over a partner's intimacy and the passions aroused by music drive a narrator to confront moral, marital, and legal consequences, culminating in violence. The shorter pieces that follow include moral parables, a folk-style tale promoting communal simplicity, gritty sketches of rural life and failed opportunity, and incisive social critique of intemperance and human hypocrisy, all linked by ethical questioning and sharp psychological observation.