How far would you go to get someone's attention? Carlota is a precocious twelve-year-old who is fond of making elaborate inventions and devoted to her astonishingly beautiful yet mildly eccentric, French nanny, Mademoiselle. Despite being courted by all the eligible bachelors in town, Mademoiselle never shows the tiniest jot of interest in the opposite sex until, on Christmas Day, Carlota's home-made decorations catch fire and the local fire brigade rush to the scene. Among the tall, athletic firefighters there is one short, balding man called Nick Kowalski with whom mademoiselle falls instantly and passionately in love. She turns to Carlota for help- how can she ever contrive to meet him again and ignite his affections? The answer lies in a box of matches...

Esther Vilar’s classic polemic about the relationship between the sexes caused a sensation on its first publication. In her introduction to this revised edition, Vilar maintains that very little has changed. A man is a human being who works, while a woman chooses to let a man provide for her and her children in return for carefully dispensed praise and sex. Vilar’s perceptive, thought-provoking and often very funny look at the battle between the sexes has earned her severe criticism and even death threats. But Vilar’s intention is not misogynous: she maintains that only if women and men look at their place in society with honesty, will there be any hope for change.