Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories includes six stories that accompany the novella about shattered dreams in a small Southern town. Amelia, the proprietor of the Sad Cafe, throws her new husband out of their bedroom on their wedding night. Torn between anger and desire the husband finally leaves town only to return some years later to find Amelia showering all her affection on a dwarf cousin who has come to live with her. The day of reckoning soon arrives and the husband and wife meet to settle their differences with their bare hands.