'Clair de Lune': Abbé Marignan is a fanatical, excitable, upright priest who believes fervently in God and that nature had been created in accordance with admirable and absolute logic. However, with the exception of nuns, the Abbé hates women. When he discovers that his niece has a lover, he seizes a formidable oak stick and sets out, by the light of the moon, to rectify the situation. But nature has other plans in store for him.

'The Necklace': Madame Mathilde Loisel, a pretty young woman, has aspirations of being accepted into high society. When her husband, a clerk in the Ministry of Public Instruction, brings home an invitation to attend a Ball at the Ministry, she is overwhelmed at the excitement - although, at the same time, anxious that she does not possess an appropriate dress or jewels to wear at the Ball. Her husband gives her four hundred francs to buy "… a really pretty gown". However, when she borrows a diamond necklace from her friend, Madame Forestier, her world, and that of her husband, is turned upside down.