A young girl works to impress her highly critical parents and submits to a terrible fate as she struggles to meet their impossible standards.

After her son dies, a mother reckons with the grandson he left behind.

The impact of an absent father emerges in the gruesome stories of a young daughter as her alcoholic mother listens and reflects on the struggles of raising her alone.

After a lifetime of secrecy, a young girls father finally includes her in the family business, giving her a sense of belonging while also drawing her into the generational curse that comes with a life of taking on other people's pain to allow them a peaceful death.

A high school boy makes a habit of stealing cars, picking up girls, and skipping school. When he begins to worry that he is getting into too much trouble, the boy must decide whether to seek help or continue his criminal lifestyle.

A young boy grows up avoiding his abusive mother and idolizing two men in his life: his father and a boy in his class. But when both of his heroes betray him, he turns to his mother for comfort.

A rambunctious teenager with an inquisitive mind causes much grief for all his New England family and neighbors when he visits them in the summer of 1914, on the eve of World War I.

A son tells a series of stories, most of them about his father and stepfather. As the son describes a robbery that took place at his house in high school and his experiences with his father, a former Jehovah's Witness and current alcoholic, he begins to recall details from his childhood.

Thirteen-year-old Angelle gets into a car accident when her drunken father begs her to drive home in his stead. Later, she must take the witness stand in court and decide her family's future with her testimony.

A mother, upon helping a girl at a playground one day, contemplates the nature of her marriage and the daughter who came from it.