Two dandies pursue different women on the St Petersburg street, with far different results. A low-ranking civil servant is privy to a love affair between two dogs and finds that he is the king of Spain. A Major wakes up to discover that his nose has left his face. It later passes him, taunting him from a carriage. A clerk scrimps and saves to buy a fine new overcoat, it's stolen, he commits suicide and returns to haunt the thief. Gogol may be said to have invented magical realism in these highly polished short stories.