A collection of stories drawn from the ample body of work published only in the New Yorker, alongside a few other stories long out of print and out of the public eye. Ruth Jhabvala began publishing in the New Yorker in 1957 and this collection spans decades. This story collection showcases Jhabvala's powers of keen observation as she examines the westernization of India's middle class, the interplay of social and romantic ambition, and the social mores that plague her characters, regardless of their geographical background. The introduction will be from the lecture Jhabvala gave when awarded the Neil Gunn Prize in Scotland in 1979, a piece titled 'Disinheritance' that examines the effects Germany, the UK, India, and New York had on her journey as a writer and how they influenced her buoyant, satiric fiction.