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.

An American student sent to study at Oxford University undergoes a mental crisis as he wavers between fitting in with his English peers and defining himself as an American who deeply loves the Midwest.

An old linguistics researcher is ousted from his university position on the frontier of a small island he acculturated. Upon his return home, he begins to believe that he and his life's work are marginal.

An American expat who lives in Rome struggles to understand his adopted country, especially the Italian language. When he finally finds the right teacher, he is overjoyed, but her unique personal life quickly pervades their lessons and confounds their rapport.

A Laotian six-year-old, whose parents can't read English, struggles in school.

A daughter and a mother wonder what the lesson of their story is.

After leaving the south to live with her husband and raise her baby, an optimistic southern woman must adjust to the wintery weather and cold company of her new home.

An American writer travels to Sophia where he meets a famous poetess. He falls in love with her and her attitude.

When a northern writer arrives in a rural Tennessee town to better understand the culture for his novel, he is put through a harrowing night by the menfolk who, in the course of an elaborate joke, convince him he has inadvertently killed the son of his hosts.

A mysterious young man appears at an old woman’s house one day and woos her deaf daughter. Impressed by how hardworking he is, the woman allows him to wed her daughter — but what are his true intentions?