A young boy grows up believing that he is a detective in an imaginary city, and he quickly grows suspicious of his new neighbor. As he grows older, he ruminates on his imaginary city.

A man recalls his intimate friendship with his former English professor, who resolved to fuel his unsatisfied desire for playwriting during the time they were apart. In their reunion decades later, instead of the brilliant play he promised, the professor shows his former student a disturbing product of his mental instability.

An author discusses with his friend the best way to write about a poor aunt. Their words take on a new power when he manifests a literal poor aunt on his back and draws in spectators.

A man tells his life story leading up to his suicide, attempting to explain the seemingly-inescapable mental paradoxes he found himself facing in his quest to be an authentic person, which reinforced, time after time, his belief that he was a fraud.

In the depths of his mind, a writer tries to uncover the autonomous, nefarious motivations of his own characters.

When a husband picks up a call he believes to have been made by a male suitor, he accuses his wife of having a lover.

Six days after getting married, a man discovers that his wife has stolen money from their family and friends, leading him to reflect on many other strange behaviors of hers. He ultimately decides that he will stay and spend his life taking the blame for her and smoothing over her mistakes.

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

A man suddenly realizes that he hates his wife, and resolves to free himself.

A writer thinks about the not-so-fine moments of his career right before an exposé about his inappropriate conduct toward various women goes live.