During a voyage to Bangkok, a captain sets out for a side-trip to a small island where a lone writer has isolated himself, crafting the work of his lifetime so he may regain the glory he once had and rejoin his beloved.

A wealthy but sad merchant meets a man in the City of Peace who tells him of a gate that will allow the merchant to step twenty years into the past and visit his former self. He travels back in time and learns that nothing can erase the past.

During an unwanted conversation with a stranger on a train in India, a woman reflects on her loveless marriage to her husband — born of financial necessity — and her abandoned dream to attend college in America.

An Indian accountant loses his job and can't support his wife and child. He aimlessly searches for new income, takes up a mistress and watches as his life spirals out of control.

A Buddhist monk tells a visitor about an enchanting woman he met and why he feels he must redeem himself.

A man who goes through life with visions of people from other time periods must answer the question of his purpose with only a cryptic computer printout to guide him.

A reserved and recently-divorced man joins a pilgrimage to meet a mysterious and all-powerful guru, and, through a harrowing crisis, finds his skepticism replaced with a newly-opened mind.

A young man leaves his traditional village behind to travel and work on distant planets. Throughout his interplanetary journeys, he must constantly reevaluate his understandings of truth, tradition, and love as he seeks a fulfilling life of his own, independent of what is expected from him.

While teaching a student his practice, an ailing Buddhist monk reflects on his life and his violent relationship with his family.

A Scottish Foreign Scholar tries to help the beggars he encounters at his university in India, but finds his outlook on life greatly changed by the sincerity of those he once looked down upon.