Set against the exotic backdrop of idealized Algeria, the two novellas in this edition, "The Three Women of the Kasbah" and "Suleima," unfold. Featuring local women practicing the world's oldest profession, the novellas initially reveal themselves as Oriental narratives with dreamy, sensual situations in a world infused with patchouli, sweat, and spices. However, they abruptly shift tone at the end, bringing forth the harshness and sensuality of the real, modern Algeria at the end of the 19th century.