Fitzgerald wrote the stories at a time of disillusionment. He was in financial difficulty, he believed his wife Zelda was romantically involved with another man, she had suffered a series of physical illnesses, and his play The Vegetable had been a failure ... The volume contains nine stories: "The Rich Boy" "Winter Dreams" "The Baby Party" "Absolution" "Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les" "The Adjuster" "Hot and Cold Blood" "The Sensible Thing"" "Gretchen's Forty Winks"