"The Darling" is a short story that explores the themes of love, loss, and oppression. The story, which is told in the third person, tells the tragic tale of Olenka, a young woman who seems to lose her sense of self each time she falls in love. As each relationship evolves and then ends, the reader watches Olenka seemingly reinvent her personality so that her personality and interests match those of the man with whom she is engaged in a relationship.

As the story begins, Olenka, the daughter of a retired college professor, is sitting on her back porch deep in thought. Evening is approaching and it looks as though it might rain. The manager of a local outdoor theater, a man named Kukin, is in the garden bemoaning the threat of bad weather; his business is highly weather dependent and he has already had...