A woman considers her possible shortcomings when her boyfriend tells her that he doesn’t like some things about her. After a period of reflection, she acknowledges the futility of self-deprecation.

In a future where population control measures are stringent, a mother struggles with her feelings for her artificial son, David, who is designed to love.

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.

A teenage girl and her mother grapple with the mother’s impending death. Throughout her mother’s last days, both try to cope with the idea of losing each other as the daughter gives in to her mother’s spontaneous requests in an attempt to please her.

Following his breakup, a Japanese college student uses savings from his relationship as a means to quit his summer mowing job, but not without first helping a woman who asks, but doesn't appear to need, for her lawn to be mowed.

A divorced woman reckons with losing the closeness that she took for granted in her marriage when her ex-husband and his new wife come to visit.

A married woman has a conversation with her friend's ex-boyfriend who expresses his regret for a series of failed relationships. Though the woman is happily married, these conversations remind her of her own regrets and abusive ex-husband.

A graduate student, on a trip in the Sonoran Desert, contemplates quitting her PhD program and moving on with life.

In San Francisco, a Chinese grandmother teaches her granddaughter how to pickle the memories she no longer wants to carry with her, much to her daughter’s chagrin.