This novel, set in Oxford and its surroundings, is a study of the games academics play with themselves, their wives, and their students. Central to the book and the reason for its title is the reflections of one of the central characters, philosoper-don Stephen, on what constitutes an "Accident." Written in an intensely poetic prose, the "Accident" is a profound meditation on marriage and infidelity, the relation between art and experience, and imagination and action. A harsh, but brilliant, portrait of life at the heights of British academe.

These stories, like much of Mavis Gallant's work, take place mostly in Montreal and Paris, and several of them involve the fortunes of one family, the Carettes. The stories include "1933," "Kingdom Come," "The Fenton Child," and eight more, including the title story. All originally appeared in The New Yorker.