I can only gesture at what makes a story good.
Is the story developing an attitude or victimized by it.
Some animals are secretive; some are shy. A cat is private.
The prose as such has to be singing the song the story is telling.
Adultery is not about sex or romance. Ultimately, it is about how little we mean to one another.
There is always something for which there is no accounting. Take, for example, the whole world.