This is a collection of seven short stories including Father Milon, Minuet, Mother Sauvage, Saint Anthony, The Prisoners, Timbuctoo and Two Friends. This is a story within a story. It is set during the winter of 1871, midway through the Franco-Prussian War in a quaint village of a French countryside. The scene is laid in "a dead house, with its skeleton standing bare and sinister" where it used to be "neat, covered with vines, with chickens before the door." The heroine is Mother Sauvage who cruelly burns four young Prussian soldiers to death. She is "a good woman," who used to "love them well" and prepare their soup. Four young Prussian soldiers are burnt to death by a woman who ever bathes them with warm maternal affection. They used to "do up all the housework like four good sons around their mother." However, everything has changed because of a letter... What on earth happens in that bloody winter? Mother Sauvage will tell you a heartbreaking story.

《索瓦热大妈》讲述的是一个故事中的故事。这个故事发生在普法战争期间。索瓦热大妈是一个寡妇，儿子应征入伍。她为四个普鲁士士兵提供住宿，她为他们洗手做羹汤，她曾经是如此地疼爱他们。然而最后的最后，一把火毁灭了他们曾经亲如母子的缘分。是什么让温良的母亲燃起了仇恨之火？战争让母亲失去儿子，让家园变成废墟；然而战争的最可怕之处在于它让仇恨延续。难道只有用鲜血和生命才能平息仇恨？