A chance encounter in a Parisian café leads to a series of unfortunate "misunderstandings" which threaten to bring to a premature and irreconcilable end the envisioned marriage between a pair of young lovers. Eligible bachelor Dick Naseby meets the lovely young Esther Van Tromp, whose less-than-respectable father he has had the dubious pleasure of encountering on his travels. Too well-bred and smitten with the lady to confess the truth, he becomes entangled in a series of falsehoods, the ultimate unraveling of which threatens to be his undoing. The Story of a Lie is a lesson in life encompassing art, alcohol, and deceit in all its forms and is presented here alongside Stevenson's celebrated short story The Body Snatcher, a macabre tale of human corruption.