The loss of a child's pet leads to grief but eventual acceptance; two stories offered to a magazine raise questions of which is fact and which is fiction; the tale of a wise and beneficent Empress with a surprising origin is recalled through her gift of a child's bauble; showing off to impress a girl has grim results; the romance between a mediaeval serving-maid and the page of her lord's best friend interacts through a roughly-executed fifteenth-century portrait with present-day occupants of the same castle; machinations in the rivalry between two church choirs, and their involvement with a murdered Russian oligarch, climax in the resolution of a long-standing quarrel; an ancient musical instrument passes through a succession of modern families until it reaches the player for whom it is destined; misunderstandings by an over-confident novice
missionary, stranded in the wilds by the illness of his mentor, lead to horrifying blunders; an elderly man, reminded by a simple melody of his youthful infatuation with a friend's sister, revisits the site of a 1920s house-party associated with her and at last achieves peace; the psychological significance of a particular recurrent dream is recognised after many years; a curious ring given by a French aristocrat to his executioner during the Terror proves
surprisingly helpful; and a deceased author, entertained by the characters in one of his uncompleted stories who have finished it themselves, is finally reconciled with a long-lost love.