A man intently studies extinct mammals to escape his wife and mistress, who often vent to him about their daily worries and give him anxiety.

Two assistants on a distant planet rebel against their captain, who is a naturalist, and plan to leave him stranded. The naturalist studies the local creatures and devises a plan to create a diversion, allowing him to regain the ship and control.

A scientist travels across North America in search of a rare beetle, collecting stories along the way.

While he pens an excuse to withdraw from a community project, a biology professor reflects on other times he avoided confrontation and ruminates on unresolved dilemmas in his life.

A scientist collecting samples on Titan finds the expedition to be beyond her wildest dreams—and her darkest nightmares—when she connects with disembodied alien life. Their strange communications take on new urgency when both their lives are at risk.

A naturalist's boyfriend offers to put her elderly dog down, but he finds it difficult as he thinks about his relationship.

When a foreign organism crash lands in Antarctica, it must disintegrate and occupy the bodies of Norwegian men in order to stay alive.

A Jesuit biologist and his team work to uncover the mysteries of a planet in the hope that it can be inhabitable for humans. But as he interacts with the native inhabitants, he realizes he has a decision to make: protect the planet or let those on Earth use it for their own selfish needs.

When an extraterrestrial bug bites a space explorer in the arm, a comical medical emergency replete with amputations and miscommunications ensues.

When an out-of-work anthropologist’s toxically masculine, aquarist father falls ill with breast cancer, the son must take care of his father by covering his work at the Detroit Zoo. In doing so, he learns to care for his father’s best friends, the amphibians in his exhibit.