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.

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.

A writer receiving feedback from a professor on their drafts is sure that the person on the other end is a man. They wrestle with their own hidden identities until the end of their literary relationship comes with an unexpected revelation.

In the depths of his mind, a writer tries to uncover the autonomous, nefarious motivations of his own characters.

In Iowa, a young Black man goes to a party where he meets a host of artist types who cause him to reflect on how people relate to each other.

A man thinks about his relationship with his parents (especially his mother) as he watches them grow old. He then realizes that he is now old too.

A man wholeheartedly agrees with a columnist in a recent paper about creating an amendment to abolish same-sex marriage, however, he takes it one step further: he suggest they also abolish "samish-sex" relationships, wherein overly feminine men date overly masculine women.

A man who unknowingly talks to himself wonders why a woman who is satisfied with her marriage is having an affair with him.

Later in life, a man recalls a man in a pinstripe suit from his synagogue whom he, as a boy, seemed to have seen everywhere.

In a lengthy dialogue, two men, possibly a psychologist and a patient, discuss adultery, sin, desire, and life.