In the chap­ter titled “The Con­tents of an Old Trunk,” the nar­ra­tor, Howard W. Camp­bell, Jr., shares an inti­mate moment with his part­ner, Hel­ga, in their Green­wich Vil­lage attic. He sug­gests they leave the cramped space for a more suit­able hotel room, propos­ing to replace all their old fur­ni­ture with new. Hel­ga, how­ev­er, express­es con­tent­ment with their cur­rent sit­u­a­tion, prompt­ing a play­ful exchange between them about find­ing a bed that recalls fond mem­o­ries.

Hel­ga sur­pris­es Howard by reveal­ing a suit­case full of his man­u­scripts, which she presents as gifts for him. This col­lec­tion con­sists of his past works, cap­tur­ing his youth­ful essence and heart­felt expres­sions. Howard has mixed feel­ings about the presents; while he acknowl­edges these papers were once the essence of who he was, he express­es dis­com­fort at their resur­fac­ing, espe­cial­ly a man­u­script titled “Mem­oirs of a Monog­a­mous Casano­va.”

As Hel­ga recites var­i­ous poems, Howard reflects on the sim­plic­i­ty and sen­ti­ment of his ear­li­er writ­ings. A par­tic­u­lar­ly poignant piece he recalls is a Ger­man poem titled “Reflec­tions on Not Par­tic­i­pat­ing in Cur­rent Events,” which illus­trates a sense of detach­ment from the world’s hap­pen­ings. Despite its dark themes, it show­cas­es the inter­nal strug­gle he faces, weighed down by mem­o­ries of con­flict.

Hel­ga informs Howard that she dis­cov­ered his trunk con­tain­ing these works while search­ing for news of him in West Berlin, where they both had deep roots in the the­ater scene. The trunk sym­bol­izes a part of his past, and for Howard, the real­iza­tion that he has no copies of these writ­ings is heavy. Their con­ver­sa­tion reveals Howard’s despair over his loss of cre­ative inspi­ra­tion and dis­il­lu­sion­ment with his sur­round­ings, despite Hel­ga’s encour­age­ment.

The chap­ter shifts as George Kraft, a friend, inter­rupts their moment, anx­ious­ly search­ing for his miss­ing pipe. His fran­tic behav­ior inad­ver­tent­ly brings Howard and Hel­ga clos­er, as they share their resent­ment for the intru­sion. The scene under­scores rela­tion­ship dynam­ics while high­light­ing Howard’s lin­ger­ing attach­ment to his past through his works, con­trast­ed with the com­pli­ca­tions of present life.