“The Old Maid” tells the story of three men who are all after the hand of the same wealthy spinster, Mlle. Cormon, in the town of Alençon. The Chevalier de Valois is a member of the ancien régime with a penchant for snuff. Du Bosquier is a former financier who fell on hard times after he was discharged by Napoleon, and whom Mlle. Cormon has already rejected once. Both of these men are in their late fifties, and their interests in the forty-something Mlle. Cormon are financial rather than romantic. The third suitor is Athanese Granson, a young man of twenty-three who has fallen head over heels in love with Mlle. Cormon, a friend of his mother’s. While each of the three are devising ways they can win her hand, her focus is someone else entirely: M. de Troisville, a man looking to settle down in Alençon.

“The Collection of Antiquities” is the name given to the salon of the Marquis d’Escrignon by those have been excluded from it. This includes the aforementioned du Bosquier, whom Balzac inexplicably renames “du Crosier” in this story. The marquis’s son, Victurnien, has been terrifically spoiled by his aunt, the marquis’s sister, who has raised him with her brother after the death of the mother. The profligate Victurnien is repeatedly rescued from ruin by the marquis’s faithful notary. Through his own recklessness and the cunning of a family enemy he eventually ends up in a situation that threatens not only his livelihood, but also that of his entire family.