Staff of the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune gather every evening for dinner at a dirty bistro with an ever-revolving cast of girls. Each passes uneventfully through their affairs, with the exception of one Ray Farquharson. Ray’s passions for each woman are extreme; he vehemently claims each affair to be a truer love than the last, even if he had said the same a week ago while engaged with someone else. Older than his colleagues, Farquharson had gone through several marriages in America and several in France, where the legality of divorce was much more convenient. His use for marriage was mostly to have a residence to return too between successive affairs.

On one occasion Farquharson dated a lawyer much more serious about their prospects together, and he nervously took a temporary job offer in Spain with little notice to her. He then wrote to the newspaper editor that he’d found his true love in Spain and entreated him to the break the news to the lawyer for him. Business concluded, he began bragging to his colleagues about the beauty and aristocratic origins of his love, Carmen, and their dramatic escape from her family. When she arrived, however, she didn’t live up to Farquharson’s description whatsoever – she was squat and saggy, her makeup thickly caked, and hair apparently glued to her forehead.

Farquharson and Carmen took up residence in a hotel room without window shades and failed to notice that a newspaper colleague, one of Farquharson’s previous women, lived right across from him. She quickly began disseminating details of their life together to all their coworkers for further amusement. Carmen, it prevailed, spent the majority of her days sleeping, applying makeup, and brutally fighting with Farquharson (scratches and smashing pottery – no holds barred).

Edna took pity on Carmen and bought her a Spanish novel, then brought over a Spanish-speaking friend to facilitate conversation. Edna, it turned out, did not know how to read, she came from an impoverished family and Farquharson was paying her family to keep her. The staff raised money to send Carmen back, which Farquharson didn’t mind – he’d already found his next love, and this time it was the real thing.