A man contemplates suicide after losing his high-paying job that supported his lavish lifestyle and he finds an unlikely therapist in a slow-witted townsperson.

In this metafiction, the many lives of an unnamed man are scrutinized as he passes through millennia.

Walking around town, a man acts as a good samaritan, offering money and assistance to anyone he passes by. He seems to be genuinely kind-hearted until his conversation with his wife upon returning home suggests his compassion is only performative.

An overly sympathetic woman never allows herself room for hatred— even as her suffocating boss stalks and harasses her.

A boy runs away from an abusive household and a magical figure from a cautionary tale: the Fool-Killer. Fear of the Fool-Killer shapes his whole life as he tries his best to live honestly and un-foolishly.

An accomplished but ineffectual columnist searches for fulfillment, until a death in the family causes him to question the family he took for granted.

A mysterious young man appears at an old woman’s house one day and woos her deaf daughter. Impressed by how hardworking he is, the woman allows him to wed her daughter — but what are his true intentions?

A Confederate officer begrudgingly fights in the American Civil War until his disastrous last battle helps seal the fate of the war for good. After the war, he constantly repents for his critical mistakes until, decades later, he comes to a shocking revelation about the fateful battle.

A disillusioned candy store owner feels burnt out with his current life and begins to project his past mistakes on the actions of a young thieving customer.

Two worlds collide at an upper-class event, where a man working for a charity grovels for donations, and a millionaire French aristocrat looks for a cause that will make her seem altruistic.