While driving a heart transplant to a patient on the verge of death, a man reflects on his past and the importance of his work.

An elderly Chinese engineer reflects the time he spends working on obsolete space craft in relative isolation.

A band of manual laborers bet their legendarily strong digger against a salesman’s machine in a competition to prove human workers’ worth.

A writer gives an account of his friend Dr. Tokai, a kind and sophisticated plastic surgeon who died after his first real heartbreak.

In a future where technology has advanced to the point where humans can undergo "optimization" to rid themselves of emotions and increase their mental functions, one man decides to cling to his humanity in an effort to atone for his sins and appreciate the beauty of being human.

A woman with a prosthetic heart has the ability to suck evil people's souls out and send them to hell. When her and her partner are treated, the woman must and her partner with insect parts spliced into her face and the power to suck souls dispose of a powerful man’s attempt to capture and use them for his own gain.

After a mechanic's friend has a crisis about marrying, they decide to move across the country together, leaving their established lives behind.

Through three tales of impossible machines with abilities to manipulate the physical world, travel through time and space, and bestow telepathy onto an entire community, candidates of an engineering exam in the far future are asked to ponder fantastical implications of technology.

While sick and bound to a hospital bed, a mathematician-loving office worker ponders on the intricacies of his marriage and dreams of impossible arithmetic equations.

In a future where death is volunteered and the population is controlled, a soon-to-be father waits for his triplets to be born—and he must find three volunteers to die in order for them to live.