The puzzleheaded girl of the title novella, Honor Lawrence, is a young New York filing clerk whose motives her mentor, Augustus Debrett, finds impossible to understand. Her obvious poverty is so embarrassing for the New England elite of her acquaintance that they prefer to imagine scandal in its place. Refusing to accept promotion, but asking, all the same, for help, Honor becomes a spectral figure in Debrett's life, leaving puzzlement and disquiet in her wake.

"The Puzzleheaded Girl" (first published in 1968) is a collection of four novellas: "The Puzzleheaded Girl," "The Dianas," "The Rightangled Creek" and "Girl from the Beach."