A young mother travels to Sicily with her husband and son, where, in the hot weather, she experiences an intense spark of attraction to another man. During a terrible storm, a housewife offers shelter to her former lover, and they soon find themselves unable to resist each other. Two female friends in Rome reminisce about their youth, bringing back a rush of heated memories of meeting their lovers after dark among the city's ruins.
In Anais Nin's 'The Veiled Woman', a mysterious man approaches a stranger in a bar and asks him if he'd like to sleep with his insatiable partner. And in Virginia Woolf's 'Moments of Being', an unmarried woman and her female piano student consider their strong feelings for each other.
This provocative collection features writers including D. H. Lawrence, Anton Chekhov, Edith Wharton, Emile Zola, Katherine Mansfield and Thomas Hardy. These are stories of seduction, satisfaction and frustration, and of lust, passion and pleasure.