This is a collection of tales about India under British rule during the 1880-1890s. Unlike many such tales, it is entirely human--that is, Kipling writes about people under those conditions, and moreso about ordinary people. He isn't a lapdog of fame, catering to governors and kings and bureaucrats by putting their names in print. He prefers common people. And he doesn't hound around trying to pholosophize about the cultures; he writes about people living in India and their all too human frailties. Most of his stories center around the soldiers, snd their lives. But not about soldiers and their combats. Entire stories are devoted to the oldest subject on earth: women and how they confuscate the dealings of men with each other.