Feeling alone and abandoned by everyone, a young man and self-confessed dreamer decides to take to the streets of St Petersburg during one of its long summer nights. As he roams around the empty city, he chances on a weeping girl, whom he approaches and rescues from the unwanted attentions of an importunate gentleman. The two agree to meet again the following night on the same spot, and as they start revealing their life story to each other, the young man cannot resist falling in love with his new acquaintance.

A quintessential tale of urban solitude and the desperate need for human contact, White Nights, a novella written in 1848, soon after The Double, is accompanied in this volume by the rest of Dostoevsky's shorter fiction, including famous stories such as 'Mr Prokharchin', 'The Dream of a Ridiculous Man', 'A Gentle Creature' and 'The Crocodile' - all presented in sparkling new translations by Roger Cockrell.