What is the summary of "Moonlight" by Guy de Maupassant?

Guy de Maupassant was a French writer who lived from 1850 to 1893 and is famous for his short stories which depict life in the nineteenth century. 

His short story entitled "Moonlight" is about two sisters who are reunited after one of the sisters has been out of the country for five weeks. 

Madame Julie Roubere is hosting her older sister Madame Henriette Letore. Madame Roubere is the younger sister. Madame Latore has been on a trip to Switzerland for the past five weeks. At first, the sisters are very excited to see each other. They hug, chatter excitedly, and generally enjoy each other's company. The story's tone changes when Madame Roubere notices that her twenty-four-year-old sister has two white streaks in her jet-black hair at each temple. Madame Roubere is horrified because her sister is so young and because there was no white in her hair before she left for Switzerland. She demands to know what is wrong with her sister. 

Madame Letore admits to having a lover. She admonishes her sister to be very careful because women are weak and it takes very little for them to stray into immorality. She describes her husband as steady, calm, and boring. She describes a time when they were traveling together and entered into a valley. Madame Latore was overcome with the beauty of the natural scene and asked her husband to kiss her. He quashed her request. 

"I clasped my hands with delight, and said to him: 'How beautiful it is, dear! Give me a kiss! Kiss me now!' He only answered, with a smile of chilling kindliness: 'There is no reason why we should kiss each other because you like the landscape.'

And his words froze me to the heart. It seems to me that when people love each other, they ought to feel more moved by love than ever, in the presence of beautiful scenes."

Madame Letore had gone to visit her sister Madame Roubere after vacationing with her husband. Roubere noticed that in her sister's jet-black hair, she had two white streaks at each temple and asked why she had them all of a sudden. Letore told Roubere about her vacation with her husband. Letore's husband had returned home early to attend to some business that was calling him. On the vacation though, They were walking and looking at a beautiful nature scene when Letore asked her husband to kiss her because she was overcome with the beauty of the landscape. Her husband merely said that he didn't understand why he should kiss her just because she though the scene was pretty. After her husband departed, she was left crying when a young man who was traveling with his mother happened upon her and began to console her. One thing led to another, passion flew, and she ended up cheating on her husband (she did get his card though!). Letore is adamant on telling her sister that she loves her husband and never thought she would cheat on him. He is a good man, treats her well, provides for her and is nice, but at the same time he is very stifling and not very emotionally connected to her. Roubere replies that it is all too often that women don't necessarily fall in love with the man they "love" but more-so with the idea of love and love itself. She says "And your real lover that night was the moonlight." meaning that she didn't cheat with a man, but with an idea.

What is the plot of "Moonlight" by Guy de Maupassant?

"The Moonlight" is the account of a conversation between Madame Julie Roubere and her elder sister Henriette Letore.

During the exposition, the author tells the reader that Madame Roubere is waiting at her home for her sister, Madame Letore, who has just returned from a trip to Switzerland.  Madame Letore has come to Paris to visit alone, her husband having returned to their estate early to take care of some business.

When Madame Letore arrives, the action begins its rise.  The sisters embrace, and Madame Roubere is astonished to see that Madame Letore has "two large locks of white hair".  When Madame Roubere presses her sister to tell her what is the matter, Madame Letore reveals tearfully that she has a lover.  Madame Letore explains that she is fond of her husband, "but he is mature and sensible, and cannot even comprehend the tender vibrations of a woman's heart".  Madame Letore herself is a woman of deep feelings and emotions, and she has for quite awhile longed for more passion in their lives.  Madame Letore had never meant to deceive her husband, but the final straw came during the time they had just had, traveling together. 

In the climax of the story, Madame Letore describes how she had been walking with her husband one morning, and had been overcome by the beauty of the landscape around them.  She had exclaimed about the scene, and asked her husband to kiss her, but he had responded with "chilling kindness" that the fact that she liked their environs was no reason for a kiss.

A few nights later, Madame Letore was walking alone by the lake, as the falling action begins.  A full moon was showing, and the scene again was sublime, evoking strong emotion in the passionate woman.  She sat by the lake and was sobbing "like a crazy woman", and a man appeared, a "young barrister" with whom she and her husband were distantly acquainted.  They talked for awhile, and he commented on the sights they had seen on the trip and recited some verses of poetry.  Seized with "indescribable emotion" that the young man should so clearly understand what she was feeling, she made love with him.

Madame Roubere consoles her sister as the older woman shrieks in anguish at the turn her life has taken.  Gently, she tells her that it is not the man she loves, "but love itself", her "real lover that night" having been the the idea of love as represented by the moonlight.