The stories in Plugging the Causal Breach explore the lives of a disparate collection of characters from French life. Many live in the shadow of the wonders of historic Paris, others in the villages of Normandy, others still in the French Midi. Here, tellingly brought together, they form the scattered mosaic of a historical puzzle that is far beyond the individual's grasp. Some choose to be loners: furniture vendor M. Pierre, the drunken truck driver at the door of a cheap hotel, the sculptor watching his building go up in flames, a depressed estate agent. Others fight something bigger than themselves: Zorica's trouble with the French administration, the harassment Chantal endures while working within it. There are traces of an older France in stories from Normandy, in the tale of a German ex-POW's war and his courageous local companion, in the account by a former chateau cook of what may be a rural myth. These stories depict a lesser-known France, brimming with communicative boldness, resilience, and humor.