In this story by Paz Latorena,a runaway maid falls in love and moves in with a poor cobbler whose shop she had sheltered in during a rainstorm. After hearing her tragic story and feeling guilty about the “enormous wrong” he had done her by living together, the cobbler promises to marry her as soon as he can save enough for the license and other fees. She learns his true feelings when, after her former employer “secretly” gifts him the money he needs, he says nothing about it. Themes include love, passion, social conventions, guilt/shame, poverty, control, deception, empowerment.

In this story by Paz Latorena a talented Filipino writer, disgusted by men who turn away from her homely face but ogle her attractive body, hides her curves with long, wide dresses. A close friendship develops with an American man who is attracted by the quality of her writing. Feeling that at last she had found someone who likes her for herself, she meets him wearing some of her old figure-hugging clothes. Sadly, his response is not what she had expected. Themes include love, longing, lust/objectification, identity, external vs. inner beauty.

In this story by Paz Latorena, a woman living on an isolated Philippine farm yields to temptation when her husband leaves his coat at home. Inside a coat pocket is the key is to a small trunk containing the clothes of his deceased first wife. Consumed with jealousy and insecure in their relationship, she opens the trunk and burns the contents. The husband finds remnants of the clothing in the ashes of the fire, and readers are left to ponder what lasting damage the wife’s actions may have done to their marriage. Themes include emotional isolation, insecurity, jealousy, trust, betrayal.