Drei Frauen, published in 1924, gathers three novellas, each centred on a woman and on a man who tries to understand her. The stories are Grigia, The Portuguese Woman and Tonka. They move between a remote Alpine valley, a medieval feud and a modern city, and in each the woman seems to embody something that reason cannot fully explain. Musil uses them to explore desire, loyalty and the strange gaps in everyday perception. The tone is lyrical and exact, and the stories are among his most admired shorter works.