A catalog of the tools different alien species use to read and write, leading to fundamental questions about what it means to make patterns of knowledge against the noise of the universe.

Is it better to have a human civilization devoid of art and culture than to have none at all? Three Earth ambassadors must whether to annihilate a space colony that has traded away human consciousness for a hive mind that feels nothing but the need for survival. In the distant future, three humans in possession of nuclear warheads must decide whether to allow a remarkable human variant species without consciousness to dominate the galaxy or destroy them forever.

Three myths from human groups on other planets describe the origin of humanity, and the necessity of respecting nature.

In a distant future in which technological advances have extended human lifespans, a man must decide whether or not to upload his dying Cuban refugee mother’s consciousness to a digital “habitat” technology he has developed, where she can live out her life in virtual simulation back home in Cuba.

When a man marries a princess from Cimmeria, a country he believes he imagined into existence, he must come to terms with a culture that recognizes twins as a single person—a primary and their shadow—and the lengths a shadow twin would go to in order to become their own person.

In a world where inter-cultural communication is translated through an immerser, which Agnes has had on too long, her husband Galen meets with the restaurant owner to plan their fifth anniversary dinner, but one of the employees, Quy, recognizes Agnes’s addiction and tries to help.

Just before an American college student is set to leave for the airport after visiting her extended family in Ethiopia, she realizes her suitcases are too heavy. A fight breaks out between her relatives about what items should travel with her at their behest, versus which ones deserve to be left behind.

On an alien world, a colony of humans has evolved to reproduce with one mother and many fathers. After delaying for years, one young woman finally chooses three fathers for her baby, but her desire for freedom draws her into the orbit of the post-human anthropologists who have come from the stars to study this quaint biological mating ritual.

A young Native American man visits a burial site on a nearby island and must reflect on both his allegiance to his culture and to himself.

When their made-up country suddenly becomes real, three high school friends find themselves in a predicament.