Barbara Frischmuth, among the most widely recognised and respected Austrian writers today, is recognised not only for her descriptive skill, but also for being a moderate feminist. In these four short tales she presents realistic portraits of women caught up in relationships determined largely by social conventions, internalised roles, and sometimes just plain bad luck. Taking her title from Ecclesiastes "All is vanity and a chasing after the wind" she presents psychologically sound studies of women protagonists' futile efforts to break out of the dead-end situations, in which they have been trapped.