Vignettes of a number of relationships, most of them troubled, are glimpsed through the descriptions of creatures in this bestiary of the imaginary.

On the day of her mother's funeral, a young woman reminisces about the summers during her childhood spent with her family and friends at their lakeside cabin. As she considers her parents' nontraditional relationship, she also wonders about her own love life.

A man meets his girlfriend’s mother. While at first she is cold to him, because of a secret his girlfriend won’t speak of, they grow close, begin to depend on each other.

After their only child dies during his gap year abroad, a woman reflects on her relationship with her husband and comes to understand that they deal with fear and grief in different ways.

Over dinner, an observer reflects on mothers and their omnipresent prevalence in children’s lives.

When a married couple announces that they are getting a divorce, their best friends who are also a couple are forced to confront what this configuration means for their social life.

Following a messy breakup, an MIT graduate and a PhD student at Indiana University separately talk about the problems in their former relationship in two spliced-together conversations, exploring conflicts surrounding language, intimacy, commitment, and intellectualism.

A divorced woman reckons with losing the closeness that she took for granted in her marriage when her ex-husband and his new wife come to visit.

In a world where there is no smell, taste, pain, death, or digestion, the people are left hungering for one thing: love.

When a friend's wedding forces her to reunite with both a past flame and her former abuser, a young woman must confront some old wounds.