One night, a frightened Swiss soldier of fortune climbs into the bedroom of a young Bulgarian girl and soon deflates her romantic notions about love and valor. The bonus play is set in 1796 at an inn where Napoleon rests at the start of his conquest of Italy.

In New Hampshire in 1777, Dick Dudgeon's father dies. Called back home to the unhappy family he revolted against years ago, Dick finds he's been named heir, much to the horror of his religious mother. To complicate matters, the British have arrived.

A stuffy professor of phonetics takes a bet that in six months time he can turn a Cockney flower seller into a lady he could pass off as a duchess.

Local MP and schoolmaster Thomas Gradgrind raises his children, Louisa and Tom, in the utilitarian fashion, stressing reason and fact and dismissing imagination and emotion. Under his influence, Louisa grows cold while Tom turns to a secret life of drinking and gambling. To be nearer her brother, Louisa accepts an offer of marriage from his boss, the self-mad, self-important banker Josiah Bounderby, though she does not love him. But soon finds herself...