During the 1970s, a teenaged boy's Vietnam War veteran uncle takes drastic action against his mother's widowed lover.

In the early 1970s, a listless radical must decide what to do with his life as his social circle of grassroots activists dwindles.

In 1970s America, a man invites his girlfriend, his daughter, and his daughter's girlfriend to the California Sierras for a weekend. As the group skis and picnics, the man considers his relationship with each woman and wonders how they interact with each other when he is not around.

In the 70s, a depressed, overweight, insecure, intellectual teenage girl stays for two weeks with a wealthy family her mother sews clothes for, the members of whom she considers confident and beautiful. She visits the historic house of her favorite novelist and entertains sexual fantasies about the boys. Years later, after becoming an academic, she reflects on the dynamics of gender and power.

A working-class mother has held only one hope for her entire life: that one day, her daughter would marry well and wealthy, and take care of her in her old age. When her daughter reveals that the man she loves is not wealthy, her mother's dreams of rest are dashed and divided.

A Jewish communist quit working at an editorial bureau where his co-workers are bothered by his leftist ideology because of his boss' praises of him.

As their father's dissident newspaper draws increasing political fire from the ruling junta, a Latin American girl and her brother endure the consequences of his stand against tyranny.

A middle-aged man and his wife struggle to keep up with their teenage daughter who they just adopted six months ago, especially when she takes interest in a boy her age.

The daughter of draft-defying anarchists in the post-World War II era marries a man whose father died in the war. As their differing pasts lead to resentment in the present, she engages in deception and affairs as a means of finding freedom from his presence.

A 20th century woman who once gave up the hippie lifestyle to become a mother, wife, and English professor returns to the past as her former lover follows her across the United States, tempting her to destroy all of the stability she’d built around her.