On a cold Seattle night, deep in the heart of winter, a woman walks into a bar and finds the beautiful and animal-like woman she has been waiting for. She chases the woman into the night and finds the stranger is not what she seems—but neither is the protagonist.

Vignettes of a number of relationships, most of them troubled, are glimpsed through the descriptions of creatures in this bestiary of the imaginary.

A young Malaysian girl falls in love with a mysterious creature that is half woman, half-ocean-centipede, but they drift apart into their different worlds. Years later, the creature encounters the girl as an adult with her family, and their love is given a second chance.

In a dark rendition of Red Riding Hood, a woman bored by village life longs for the dark mystery of the woods and the wolves therein.

When a neglected and lonely girl is approached by an illusion-making creature looking for an apprentice, she experiments with her newfound powers and makes a perfect version of herself. She quickly finds out that perfection isn't all it's cracked up to be and searches for a way to end the illusion.

After returning from her deployment overseas, a young woman, originally from Seattle, visits her family down in Alabama. Despite numerous warnings, the young woman finds herself traveling alone at night, except she isn't alone at all - she's with all the monsters she was warned about.

The female mantis kills her husband ten different ways.

In an alternate universe where mermaids are critically endangered animals, a team of marine biologists off the coast of Jeju Island embark on a decade-long journey to revive the over-hunted, largely-infertile species. The researchers' hopes are set on one dominant female, but when their tampering crosses an irreversible line, their mission— and her life— become jeopardized. In an alternate world where mermaids are real and critically endangered, a team of marine biologists near Jeju Island embark on a decade-long mission to revive the over-hunted and overwhelmingly male species. The scientists set their hopes on one dominant female and her two male companions. However, as they study their sexual lives, the team learns just how complicated an "animal" can be— and how, sometimes, conserving a species comes at the cost of some of its members.

A man slowly falls in love with a beautiful, mysterious river troll who lives under a bridge near his home. However, as the gap between their worlds becomes wider, they must reckon with how their interspecies relationship would survive in the unforgiving world above.

When Enn and Vic go to a party to try to talk to girls, they find themselves flirting with highly intelligent alien life forms.