A city employs people to act strangely to order to make others feel normal.

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.

An insufferable white man offers advice to a well-read, unemployed Black man holding a sandwich-board sign on a street corner on race relations, physical appearance, and how to improve his handwriting and thereby advance himself in society.

A four-year-old Southern boy can read novels but has never spoken a word in his life. When he goes to his family's Fourth of July picnic, he must decide whether it is the appropriate moment to speak—or if there ever will be one.

Ginny is dolled up by Oliver, a loose male acquaintance, to simulate friendship and help him back out of an unwanted encounter.

A Los Angeles speech pathologist is assigned to the case of a presumably mentally-ill woman who speaks in gibberish that turns out to be Old English. When the woman disappears, deciphering her mysterious writing leads the pathologist to wonder if she has stumbled across a time traveler.

When a mysterious new member joins a group of struggling authors, the friends discover that they may have a supernatural creature in their midst, who can grant a single author success above all the others—but at a cost.

A middle-aged, single, hairdresser spends the day spreading gossip from client to client. She ends her busy day with an ultimate act of meddling.

When a steely and fiercely independent woman opens her heart to a bizarre visitor, it uplifts their entire Southern town, until their relationship falls prey to another man’s revenge.

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