"My dog, realizing that the walk would last a while, dug up an old toy to play with me. He jumped towards a sand dune where I had thrown the object, suddenly retreated as if he had been stung, and started barking.

I tried in vain to calm him down, checked his paws to see if another animal had bitten him, and then, ignoring him completely, I went to pick up the ball by myself.

A man emerged from the bushes.

He was naked.

Seeing my surprise, he uprooted a handful of grass with his strong hand and placed it in front of his genitals.

"Madam, please don't be afraid of me."

No fear at all, I was thinking something completely different. I found him so powerful, so manly, so intensely desirable that I couldn't breathe.

"The Dreamer of Ostend", "Perfect Crime", "The Cure", "Reading Trash", "The Woman with the Bouquet". Five novellas and five seemingly ordinary people who transform into unique fictional heroes. Playing masterfully with all genres of storytelling, from sentimental romance to detective thriller, E.E. Smith unfolds in front of the reader the emotions that run through his entire work: love, passion, romance, doubt, curiosity, dedication... transforming his seemingly simple stories into universal and timeless philosophical quests.