As she walks alongside the Hudson River with her friend, a woman excitedly explains her intricate vision of what would give her happiness.

Apollo is an ordinary kid at a party, a crime fighting justice-seeker, a victorious basketball player, a police officer doing his job, a scared boy running from a villain. His story begins again and again, and he's different every time — but every time, his story ends in the same, terrible way.

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

When a perpetually unlucky Nigerian American law school dropout meets her parents’ dream son-in-law, she has to pick between finally meeting her parents’ expectations for her and retaining control over her own life, as tempestuous and miserable as it is.

A man considers the possibility of multiple realities, and creates possible scenarios for how his life could have turned out; including one where he is a famous football player, another where he's a stay-at-home dad caring for a daughter who has Down Syndrome, and another where she doesn't.

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

A pessimistic father's belief that the world is actively against him and his family displaces his frustration on his wife and son. His opinion may prove to be correct after his child succumbs to a sudden illness.

A depressed, middle-aged San Francisco writer gives his artificially intelligent alter ego permission to assume his personality in public, resulting in an unexpected boom for the washed-up man.

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

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.