A couple attends the show of a marvelous, sensuous, and regal African American singer in Paris. The wife of the couple finds herself struggling for a grip as the pleasure of seeing this performer infiltrates her fortress of restraint.

A young girl is brought by her sick mother to the home of a small family with a girl her age. The girls are raised together as cousins and attend Catholic school, but, when they are older, the orphaned girl moves to New York to pursue a career as a performer. The daughter, now a young woman, often sneaks away to visit her cousin in New York and witness her dramatic, whirlwind lifestyle.

Years after facing abuse from the hermit overseeing a nature preserve, two children—now adults—enact their revenge.

The ex-wife of a famous male writer considers a story he wrote about a neighbor they once had.

A mother, her two children, and their stepfather come over to a friend’s for a dinner on Labor Day.

A daughter, on the verge of becoming a mother, learns a great deal in spending time with her own mother.

A woman, living with her husband, is overcome with a strange, inexplicable ailment to her body.