"Small Change" is Yehudit Hendel's story about an Israeli woman named Rutchen, who lives a life traumatized by a dysfunctional family life and time spent unnecessarily in a prison. The story is told to a narrator, a neighbor of Rutchen's. By the end of the story, she loses her grip on reality. The story reverts back and forth in time from the present to the past, as Rutchen recalls important events. Set in Israel and Switzerland, the story was written in 1999 by Hendel, a noted Israeli woman author.

The story opens with the narrator recalling the time that Rutchen's father sold his magnificent stamp collection. The neighbors are shocked, because the man prizes that almost as much as he does the spare change he has collected for years. The neighbors speculate that the money earned from the sale of the stamps is enough to buy...