Given the complicated prepublication history of The Beggar Maid it is possible to consider any or all of the ten stories in the book as related to the three stories that were dropped from the second version. Each of these excised stories explores the central theme of "connections," with female characters experiencing insights and participating in events that reinforce their links to other people, other places, and other times. Also related to the book, both structurally and thematically, is Lives of Girls and Women, in which Munro explores the development of another strong-willed female character, Del Jordan.