‘Three Lives’ is a series of novellas, three independent stories set in the fictional town of Bridgepoint. The first story is that of ‘The Good Anna’, about Anna Federner, a servant of ‘solid lower middle-class south german stock.’ The second story is that of ‘Melanctha’, who is the daughter of a black father and mixed-race mother. The third story is that of ‘The Gentle Lena’, which follows the life and death of the titular Lena, a German girl brought to Bridgepoint by an aunt. To this is added ‘Tender Buttons’, which is Stein’s most famous work of hermetic poetry.