Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman

At a Riviera guest house, the flight of Madame Henriette with a young Frenchman she met the day before divides the guests. The narrator, alone in defending her, is soon taken into the confidence of Mrs C., an Englishwoman of sixty-seven still held by the memory of a single day. Widowed and idle, she once spent an evening at the Monte Carlo casino watching the players' hands rather than their faces. Those of a very young man hold her, and she resolves to intervene. Zweig examines sudden passion, chance, and how much of a life fits into a day.