These six stories display Albert Camus at the height of his powers. From a variety of masterfully rendered perspectives and tones, they depict people at decisive moments of revelation. A wife betrays her huband to give herself to the desert night. A renegade missionary is brutally converted to the worship of a tribal fetish. A carefree artist is caught between society's values and his own private yearning. Whether set in North Africa, Paris, or Brazil, these classic stories share a single theme: modern man, condemned by nature and circumstances to spiritual exile, ever seeks an inner kingdom in which to be reborn.