A few weeks after he throws his wife, Desiree, out of his house for giving birth to a black baby, Armand Aubigny orders his black servants to build a bonfire in the backyard and burn everything that reminds him of her. He watches from his hallway as they burn Desiree's velvet, silk and lace gowns, her "priceless" layette, her bonnets and gloves, her embroideries, and the letters she wrote to him during their courtship.
In last few lines of the story, the author says that, while sorting through his things, Armand found a letter from his mother stating that he has black ancestry. The reader is therefore left to wonder if Armand is burning Desiree's belongings because he is angry with her or because he wants cover up the truth of his own origins.
Once Armand has discovered what he regards as the terrible truth of Désirée's racial heritage, he wants nothing more to do with her or the baby they've had together. He proceeds to build a huge bonfire, on which he throws just about everything he can lay his hands on that might conceivably relate to Désirée and the baby. In particular, he gathers together all of Désirée's letters and consigns them to the roaring flames in an attempt to forget her, and to expunge all traces of the emotional pain, trauma, and public humiliation which this whole sorry episode has caused him.
But it's not quite so simple. For in burning Désirée's correspondence, Armand doesn't simply destroy all the mementos of his marriage: he also destroys himself and his family's good name. A piece of burning paper in the heat of the flames reveals a dark secret that not only exposes his prejudice but will lead to shame and humiliation far greater than anything Désirée could ever have brought him.
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