In this powerful story by Patrick White middle-class, status-obsessed parents wake to their worst nightmare… their daughter in torn clothing, sobbing about having just been raped at knife point by a night prowler. Their immediate focus is on the shame and consequences of the girl losing her virginity, rather than her psychological well-being. Shocked by their superficiality, the daughter calls off her engagement to an up-and-coming diplomat and subsequently rebels against her sterile life by stalking the streets and becoming a night prowler herself. Themes include social appearances, superficiality, repression, rejection of victimhood, empowerment, alienation, connection.

In this story by Patrick White, a woman with very low self-esteem spends her life at the beck and call of a rancorous, dominating husband. As they age and he gradually wastes away, they spend their days “traffic watching” from the veranda of their small house on a busy road. She becomes obsessed with a strange-looking man who drives by at five-twenty every day and, following a chance meeting after her husband dies, experiences what may be her first passionate stirrings. Sadly, death comes between them. Themes include patriarchy, gender roles, aging, loneliness, lack of passion and fulfilment, freedom, loss.