[4][5] A man returns for a day's fishing to a favourite spot where, over the years, he had spent happy times with several female companions.

[7] Tolstoy considered this story to be "unmistakably autobiographical", the protagonist being a man who, after failing in the British Army, has moved to a remote corner of Ireland where he finds himself unable to maintain a small farm;[8] his poor judgement and lack of guile leads to a life of wretchedness which culminates in disaster.

Depressed, he turns to start the long walk back, his mood changing to exhilaration as he appreciates the beauty of three wild swans flying high over his head.

[17][18] He sent him a copy of his book The Last Pool, in which the story appears, along with a note hoping that the recipient would understand his description of the state of mind of a man who was fed up with killing.

The couple with whom he is lodging are tense, and appear to be constantly in fear of their lives, several people they know having recently died in suspicious circumstances.

"Billabillian" is a tale of the mutual incomprehension between Cornelius O'Leary, the young Irish Catholic purser of an East Indies merchantman, and his captain, a severe and devout Protestant.

He has with him a detailed treatise on local trading practices written by his hugely experienced uncle, and he has learned the relevant sections by heart.

But O'Leary knows well that Billabillian can be avoided by means of a suitable payment to the officials who will provide a receipt for a higher amount, the difference representing the usual opportunity for valuable personal trades by the captain and his purser.

'Billa-billian' was a real trading custom in the Javanese port of Bantam in 1603–1605, as reported by the Scottish surgeon Robert Kerr in volume 8 (1813) of his historical study A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Arranged in Systematic Order.

[20] A story of the frustrating and eventually dangerous experiences encountered by a man travelling by train from Paris to England,[21] trying and failing to catch up with a woman he had arranged to meet.

Tolstoy speculated that the feeling of loss may have derived from the author's occasional and quite irrational concerns that he might lose his wife or her affections.

As he lives for his clocks and has nothing else to absorb his mind and time, the lack of worthwhile tasks makes the hours and days stretch out before him as a depressing and horrifying blank.

"[24] Donald Barr for The New York Times, also writing in 1955, called it "a psychological history of a man's hellish constriction of his soul into madness.

"[25] A nightmarish tale about the dark side of human nature, recounting the violent anti-Semitism in a small village in the south of France.

[27] Tolstoy noted that the opening description provides a lyrical evocation of the largely unaltered Collioure of O'Brian's early days in the town.

Reviewing the story for its 1955 US publication, Donald Barr for The New York Times said that it "laughingly arrays the Seven Deadly Sins and the cardinal virtues in the guise of a medieval saint's legend.

"[29] A fugitive escapes on foot south across the Pyrenees from a military threat emanating the north (the Nazis during World War II in Tolstoy's reading).

"[24] Donald Barr for The New York Times, also writing in 1955, said that the story "shaking with macabre laughter, shows hell itself under the aspect of a madhouse.

[32] In his assessment of 1973, Richard Ollard considered the tale to be notably good in setting the scene and in evoking the emotions kindled by the sport.

Godfrey Hodgson in The Independent wrote that the author "paces to perfection ... the idea that what the narrator feels for his ostensible friend is in fact murderous hatred.

Examining his motivations, the narrator concludes that – whether dream or reality – since he did not consciously know where the fuse box was, his mind must be guilty of unconscious criminal intent, and that it must logically follow that he is a psychopath who cannot morally continue to live.

In her 1951 diary, O'Brian's wife had recorded "an infernal racket" which went on until 6 am, emanating from a restaurant below the flat in Collioure where they lived at the time.

When he reaches the final pool at the head of the cascades a magnificent salmon takes the fly, and after a long struggle the fisherman slips into the dark racing water while attempting to land it.

As Paula walks back from the maid's home after putting the question to her family, she has a view from afar into her own garden, and there she sees the girl being amorously chased through the bushes by an unseen man.

"[27] The back cover of the book included a quotation from A. S. Byatt listing a number of authors to whom she returned regularly for "cheer or consolation".

[33] Writing in The Independent, Godfrey Hodgson called the quality "unmistakeable", and speculated that the tales may have been overlooked when first published because readers "cannot bear too much reality.