After his father abandons him and his mother, leaving them with two hunting dogs, a teenage boy tries to save them from ending up in the shelter.

Set around the 1940s, a thirteen-year-old boy pursues the purchase of a puppy he saw in a newspaper ad, and receives an unexpected sexual experience from the woman who sells him the dog.

Set during the Second World War, a Czech man tells a story about his dog, in an attempt to make relatable the cruel reality of life in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to a sheltered American woman who owns a pet dog.

A man develops a deep interest in the author of a children's book he reads to his daughters. Ignoring his wife's confusion and mild disapproval, he goes to visit the author's old house and takes his daughters with him.

A boy observes the close relationship between a unique hunting dog and his companions when they venture out to catch an elusive bear.

A young girl with a grievous family situation grows up and tries to escape her reality by seeking false love and affection.

An older man, recently retired, lives in Paris with his younger husband who is often traveling for work. Though the man is reluctant when his husband first brings home a dog, the pet soon becomes his close companion as he struggles with aging, questions his marriage, and faces trauma from his youth.

A disaffected teenager skips school to mourn his dead dog and tries to puzzle out the missing variable in his life.

After a young Jewish boy moves to Berlin with his family, he learns that his family agreed to watch a boy from the mental institution on the weekends. The two become friends, and the boy learns more about himself through meeting the other boy.

When a mother takes her children to buy a puppy from another mother, she finds an unsettling household and a child chained like a dog in the backyard. Through their alternating narratives, both mothers reflect on what it means to love your children.