The tales in this collection, as with those of Tales of All Countries, encompass a variety of themes and are set in a number of different lands. Lotta Schmidt herself is an attractive young woman of Vienna, whose heart is melted by the sensitive zither-playing of her admirer Herr Crippel. The two generals, in the story of that name, are soldiers on opposing sides in the American Civil War. Father Giles of Ballymoy is an hospitable Irish priest whose strange ways are at first misinterpreted by an English visitor, and Miss Ophelia Gledd has two suitors, one American and one English, both of whom are representatives of all their fellow countrymen.