Dick Shelton lives like everyone else. He thinks like most representatives of English secular society, makes the "right" acquaintances, reads the "right" newspapers, is going to marry the "right" young lady without love, although deep down he understands that his marriage will not be happy. However, a chance meeting on a train with bohemian Frenchman Louis Ferrand changes everything. For the first time, Shelton begins to observe, think, and analyze on his own. And every day he likes what he sees around him less and less . . . Also included in this collection is the novel "The Freelands," which tells of great love and a terrible scandal that rocked the whole of Victorian England.