These three tales are drawn from George W. Cable’s youth in New Orleans.

Madame Delphine is filled with the exoticism of Creole culture and tells the story of an elderly woman and her attempt to arrange an advantageous marriage for her light-skinned daughter by passing her off as white. In Carancro, Cable shifts the focus to the simple rural lives of Cajun families. Grande Pointe casts Creole society in a harsher light—as it supplants the older Cajun culture of southern Louisiana.