As she walks alongside the Hudson River with her friend, a woman excitedly explains her intricate vision of what would give her happiness.

When a young man leaves his home in Kansas City to find a career, he struggles to settle down in one spot. He wanders, impoverished, across the western United States and finds a transcendent understanding of the human condition.

A man reflects on his countless journeys on Greyhounds—and the woman he hoped to see at his destinations.

A mysterious man able to travel through time and space on a whim has a simple job: he must do one good deed every day. What exactly a "good deed" is, however, remains unclear; the bolder his interference becomes, the less sure he is that he's leaving the world better off.

After a devastating accident in space, a young astronaut constantly underwhelmed by her own achievements is forced to make a long, arduous trek back to her ship while dragging the corpse of her more impressive partner.

Online, space ship storytellers discuss why they tell stories for a living—and how to do it right.

A successful gentleman whose ventures have recently failed goes on a miserable quest to find a seam of ore, following a questionable character who claims to have found it.

In intense discussion a group leader ponders aloud, asking why hermits hide and what defines outcasts, among other cerebral queries. A group of friends discusses the oddities they have seen and perceived in their lives leather-clad hermits and criminal astronauts among them. They debate the purpose of hermitage, the classification of outcasts, and the purpose of their own reflections.

A research psychologist visits a peculiar asylum patient who recounts his life story. The patient warns the researcher about how obsession with the pursuit of knowledge can make one lose sight of their humanity until it is unsalvageable.

A man's lonely life focused on the pursuit of reason and music leaves him questioning what more there may be in the lives of other people and of religion.