Debits and Credits is a collection of anguished and bleak stories written by an author struggling with his own inner sufferings. Marital discord and adultery, war and death, cancer and disease are recurring themes throughout the stories, with the relentless ticking of the clock acting as a harbinger of greater sorrows. Concealed within the prose are reflections of Kipling's own life, and faint echoes of his dying reputation as a once-famed writer. Amongst such anguish, however, there are faint glimmers of hope and an expectation of what is to come.