A Woman-Hater

Set among visitors at a continental spa, the narrative interweaves the lives of an observant young woman who scrutinizes a visitors' book, a harried agent seeking a last-minute performer, and a circle of fashionable acquaintances whose flirtations, deceptions, and chaperone arrangements produce comic misunderstandings. Conversations reveal a bitterly cynical man whose antipathy toward women shapes social expectations, while other characters conceal past romances and mysterious absences. Through episodic scenes of gossip, theatrical stratagems, and moral posturing, the story examines gendered assumptions, performance and hypocrisy, and the uneasy negotiations of affection and reputation within polite society.