The following version of this short story was used to create the guide: Thorpe, Adam. "Tyres." Stories of Ourselves: Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Adam Thorpe's short story "Tyres" is written from the first person point of view of the unnamed protagonist. The narrative straddles multiple temporal eras and employs the past and present tenses. For the sake of clarity, the following summary relies upon the present tense and a linear mode of explanation.

The unnamed first person narrator lives in a remote French village with his father, André Paulhan. André opened the shop the year the narrator was born and began teaching him the trade from a young age. As the narrator grows up, he becomes increasingly invested in the business. When he is 17 in 1942, the narrator takes pride in painting the shop sign. Not long later, the narrator and André notice an array of German military vehicles passing their home and shop. Over time, the vehicles become more prevalent and begin destroying the rural roads. The shop becomes busier as a result.

One day, André returns home in his finest clothes. He tells the narrator that he met with a military officer and that the narrator does not have to serve in the war. Throughout the following years, the narrator remains at home with his father and continues working at the shop. Meanwhile, the narrator falls in love with a local girl named Cécile Viala. Cécile works not far away and lives in a neighboring valley. She rides by the shop on her bike multiple times almost every day of the week. Over the course of the following three years, she and the narrator become friendly with one another. They start to have passing conversations and to meet one another in the woods. The world seems happy and beautiful to the narrator and he hopes that he and Cécile will be together forever. However, when she mentions the Resistance in conversation one day, the narrator panics. He has not wanted to believe that her family is involved with the guerrilla fighters and fears that she might endanger him. However, she never mentions the subject again and the narrator puts the issue out of his mind.

In 1944, the violence in the region worsens. The narrator can no longer ignore what is happening. He and his father often hear gunfire in the streets, witness cars exploding, or see the bodies of local villagers in the streets. Then one day, a German Gestapo officer stops at the shop for a new tire. While he talks to André in the office, the narrator works on the car. He shaves down the inner tubing on the wheel, shoving it back between the chrome rims just as the officer is emerging. Just before the officer leaves, Cécile approaches the shop on her bike. The narrator notices her chain is broken and offers to repair it. She declines the offer and rides on. Moments later, the narrator watches in horror as the officer pulls up alongside Cécile and offers her a ride. The narrator does not do or say anything as the officer puts Cécile's bike in the trunk and Cécile climbs inside. Shortly thereafter, the car crashes into a tree and Cécile dies.

Decades later, the narrator is still living in his home village and working at the tire shop. He doubts that anyone besides him remembers Cécile but continues to put flowers on the place where she died every year.