In Iowa, a young Black man goes to a party where he meets a host of artist types who cause him to reflect on how people relate to each other.

In an alternate universe of white suburban America, one nine-year-old girl's childhood is cut short when her parents find her a marital match: a socially-awkward businessman with a ridiculous mustache. Although she surrenders to her mother's housewife training, when the day of the wedding arrives, she tries to escape, endangering her and others in the process.

A college counselor watches anxiously as her teenage son applies to college without her help. As her son plans for his future, the counselor and her husband reflect on how quickly their lives have changed, seeking ways to steady themselves in the midst of middle age.

A writer analyzes the popularity and success of Star Wars by considering its contemporary political movements and the narrative created by Americans.

In the mid-20th century, a young white boy comes to understand the complexities of interracial relationships as he witnesses the mix of hostility and affection that members of his mother's side of the family feel towards one of her Black friends from high school.

In the early 1970s, a listless radical must decide what to do with his life as his social circle of grassroots activists dwindles.

As an old woman revisits her family's quintessentially American history, she finds a way to respect and love her parents, despite the scandals and tragedies they endured.

Two sisters, both Sociology professors, find themselves summering husbandless in their rickety childhood home with their bastion of six children, their ornery mother, and their paralyzed father. They swap between stories of their upbringing and their present task of preparing for a fatal hurricane which will challenge their quaint way of life.

During World War II, a boy moves to the big city from agrarian Alabama. Astounded by the lack of greenery, he convinces a local gang to build a farm, but not everyone agrees with his plan.

A failing friendship with another couple leads a community college teacher to leave the country.