Fitzgerald wrote the stories at a time of disillusionment. He was in financial difficulty, he believed his wife Zelda was romantically involved with another man, she had suffered a series of physical illnesses, and his play The Vegetable had been a failure ...

The volume contains nine stories:

"The Rich Boy"
"Winter Dreams"
"The Baby Party"
"Absolution"
"Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les"
"The Adjuster"
"Hot and Cold Blood"
"The Sensible Thing""
"Gretchen's Forty Winks"