If on a winter’s night a traveler: In a network of lines that intersect Summary & Analysis

The narrator feels that mirrors help him think, so he collects kaleidoscopes to help him make decisions. The narrator has been able to transform his collecting into a surprisingly profitable business. He is involved in many complicated business dealings and is afraid that his rivals will try to kidnap him.

To avoid being kidnapped, the narrator has five decoy Mercedes vehicles that resemble his own and sometimes exit the armored gate of his villa. He also fears that people like his wife, Elfrida, will find out about his extramarital relationship with a divorced woman named Lorna. Eventually, the narrator feels he hasn’t done enough to protect himself and begins staging false kidnappings to throw people off.

The narrator finds a way to exploit his fake kidnappings by forming insurance companies. But one day, during a false kidnapping, the narrator gets unexpectedly taken back to his house and locked in a mirror room. He wonders if he’s somehow kidnapped himself. In the center of the mirror room, Lorna lies tied up. The narrator frees Lorna, but she gets angry and accuses him of tying her up.

Elfrida comes into the mirror room and says she kidnapped the narrator for his own protection. But when Elfrida asks how to get out of the mirror room, the narrator doesn’t know. He loses track of what’s him and what’s just a reflection.