Summary

The story begins with the narrator describing an experience from his childhood in which he saw by the beach two girls dressed in an unfamiliar style. Taking them for foreigners visiting the town, called simply "C," he does not imagine he will ever see them again. However, days later, he does see them, and this time they are part of a group of five or six girls, all dressed in the same manner. He takes note of one girl in particular with red hair.

The narrator continues to see the girls every now and then in town. He explains that they are the "daughters or the nieces of the local aristocracy, the noble families or the wealthy families who mixed with nobility and spent several weeks of the year in C" (2). He acknowledges that the girls are part of a markedly different social class...