In Michigan, a recently divorced professor reflects on what it means to exist, first alone in his empty apartment and then alongside his student in a mission to find a missing girl.

Following his breakup, a Japanese college student uses savings from his relationship as a means to quit his summer mowing job, but not without first helping a woman who asks, but doesn't appear to need, for her lawn to be mowed.

As a woman slips in and out of sleep, her dreams become windows to moments in her life.

A story with an unconventional structure that asks "What is your number one priority?"

A man's lonely life focused on the pursuit of reason and music leaves him questioning what more there may be in the lives of other people and of religion.

A woman considers her possible shortcomings when her boyfriend tells her that he doesn’t like some things about her. After a period of reflection, she acknowledges the futility of self-deprecation.

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 writing critic reviews the construction of Charles Chesnutt’s stories and how to write surfiction.

A woman meticulously and obsessively reflects on the vanishing of her sister.

A graduate student, on a trip in the Sonoran Desert, contemplates quitting her PhD program and moving on with life.