The following version of this book was used to create the guide: King, Lily. Five Tuesdays in Winter. Grove Press, 2021.

Lily King's Five Tuesdays in Winter is a collection of 10 short stories. Each of the stories is told from a different point of view and employs distinct formal and linguistic choices. The following summary uses the present tense and adheres to a linear mode of explanation.

In "Creature," shortly after she and her mother move out of her father's house for the third time, Carol gets a summer babysitting job. She spends two weeks in one of her mother's customers Mrs. Pike's mansion on Widows' Point. For the first week, Carol feels comfortable and happy. The house is palatial and the Pike family is pleasant enough. Then, when the children's uncle, Hugh, comes to visit, everything changes. Carol feels attracted to him, and writes about him to her friend Gina. Hugh sneaks into her room one day and finds the letter. Not long later, he corners her in the bathroom and assaults her. Carol realizes that love and sex are not what she once believed them to be.

In "Five Tuesdays in Winter," middle-aged single father, Mitchell, develops a crush on his sole bookstore employee, Kate. Kate is a thirty-something woman, who has just moved to Portland, Maine from the West Coast. Because she is intelligent, attractive, and has a boyfriend, Mitchell's crush feels hopeless. When Kate starts tutoring his young daughter, Paula, Mitchell wonders if something might happen between them. Not long after Kate breaks up with her boyfriend, she comes to Mitchell and Paula's for another tutoring session. She and Mitchell talk and kiss. Mitchell feels that love is possible.

In "When in the Dordogne," the summer before the narrator begins high school, his parents go to France for two months. Their trip is meant to help his father recover after his recent suicide attempt. While they are away, two college boys, Ed and Grant, stay with the narrator. Ed and Grant's liveliness and enthusiasm teach the narrator how to find joy amidst great suffering.

In "North Sea," two years after her husband Fritz's death, Oda is still grieving. Her friends and family convince her that taking a trip with her daughter, Hanne, will help them to heal from their loss. Not long into the trip, Oda realizes the entire ordeal has been a mistake. Hanne is moody and refuses to communicate. Oda feels lonely and ornery. Then one day, while eavesdropping on Hanne while she is babysitting an Australian couple's children, Oda realizes what her daughter is really feeling and what she really needs.

In "Timeline," after ending her affair with William and having an abortion, Lucy flees Cambridge for Burlington. She moves in with her brother, Wes, and his girlfriend, Mandy. Though Lucy has moved many times in the past, this move feels lacking in possibility and hope. It is not until she encounters William at a wedding and he follows her home, that Lucy realizes she must let go of the past.

In "Hotel Seattle," the narrator has a crush on his college roommate, Paul. He does not confess his feelings because he has yet to come out, and because Paul is straight. Years later, Paul is married, and the narrator is in a relationship with an older man named Steve. Then one day, Paul calls the narrator. They meet up at the hotel where Paul is staying and have sex. Paul's violence and cruelty make the narrator realize how good his relationship with Steve truly is.

In "Waiting for Charlie," an elderly man visits his granddaughter Charlie in the hospital. A recent skiing accident has put her into a coma. He tries to communicate with her during the visit, eventually realizing his own fear of death.

In "Mansard," Audrey's unexpected connection with her friend Frances's father, Ben, complicates her understanding of herself. Ben both reminds her of her late father, and makes her realize the depth of her longings and fears.

In "South," a year after her husband leaves her, Marie-Claude takes her children, Flo and Tristan, on holiday. During their car ride, the children beg for stories and complain when Marie-Claude tells the tales incorrectly. The experience makes Marie-Claude reflect on the relativity of truth.

In "The Man at the Door," Sylvia is struggling to finish her third novel. Her first two attempts have failed. Then one day, a random stranger appears with a printed and bound copy of her yet-unfinished manuscript. Desperate to know what is going on, she lets him inside her home. The man gets drunk and criticizes Sylvia's writing and artistic endeavors. Sylvia kills the man and buries him in her yard. She finds this to be an ideal ending to her novel.